UC-NRLF 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

T 

Class 


jtten  of 

BAYARD  TAYLOR 


American  St^cn  of  H rttrra 


BAYARD  TAYLOR 


BY 


ALBERT  H.  SMYTH 


BOSTON   AND  NEW  YORK 
HOUGHTON   MIFFLIN  COMPANY 
ftitoetfibe  press 


Copyright,  1896, 
BY  ALBERT  H.  SMYTH. 

All  rights  reserved. 


PREFACE. 

THE  life  of  Bayard  Taylor  was  so  varied  and 
so  busy  that  a  mere  catalogue  of  his  industry 
would  fill  a  small  volume.  The  most  difficult  M 
part  of  my  task  has  been  to  limit  the  narrative. 
I  have  therefore  not  attempted  to  follow  him 
carefully  in  his  travels,  but  have  preferred  to 
enter  with  more  particularity  into  his  literary 
history  at  home. 

His  biographer  must  continue  to  draw  his 
materials  from  the  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Bayard 
Taylor,"  edited  by  Marie  Hansen-Taylor  and 
Horace  E.  Scudder.  In  addition  to  that  admir 
able  work  I  have  had  the  advantage  of  exam 
ining  the  miscellaneous  manuscript  collections 
which  Mrs.  Taylor  generously  placed  at  my  dis 
posal.  At  every  turn  Bayard  Taylor's  friends 
and  former  colleagues  have  been  kind  and  help 
ful.  My  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Richard  Henry 
Stoddard,  Mr.  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  Rev. 
W.  R.  Alger,  Mr.  Parke  Godwin,  Mr.  John 
Bigelow,  Mr.  Whitelaw  Reid,  Mr.  Richard 

213372 


vi  PREFACE. 

Storrs  Willis,  Mr.  H.  S.  Everett,  Mr.  Clinton 
Scollard,  Hon.  Andrew  D.  White,  Hon.  Samuel 
W.  Pennypacker,  and  Professors  James  Morgan 
Hart  and  Waterman  T.  Hewett  of  Cornell  Uni 
versity. 

Mr.  William  D.  Howells  very  kindly  placed 
at  my  disposal  the  letters  addressed  by  Bayard 
Taylor  to  him  when  he  was  editor  of  the  "  At 
lantic  Monthly." 

The  reminiscences  of  Mrs.  Sara  J.  Lippincott 
(Grace  Greenwood),  Miss  G.  Bloede  (Stuart 
Sterne),  Mrs.  Sidney  Lanier,  and  Mrs.  Annie 
Carey,  a  sister  of  Bayard  Taylor,  have  been 
very  useful  to  me. 

I  have  particularly  to  thank  my  friends  Mr. 
Donald  G.  MitcheU,  Mr.  William  Winter,  Mr. 
J.  G.  Rosengarten,  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Fur- 
ness,  and  Mr.  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  to  whom 
I  owe  on  this  as  on  all  other  occasions  gratitude 
heaped  up  and  running  over. 

My  page  would  be  too  small  to  contain  the 
names  of  all  the  Chester  County  friends,  who, 
out  of  their  love  and  respect  for  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  and  the  goodness  of  their  generous  hearts, 
showed  me  countless  courtesies. 


PREFACE.  vii 

I  must  not  fail,  however,  to  mention  Mr. 
James  Monaghan  of  West  Chester,  and  I  can 
not  forget  the  constant  interest  and  aid  of  my 
old  preceptor  and  friend,  Professor  Daniel  W. 
Howard. 

As  this  is  the  first  biography  of  a  Pennsylva- 
nian  writer  that  has  appeared  in  the  Men  of 
Letters  Series,  I  have  ventured  to  introduce  a 
brief  outline  of  literary  history  in  Pennsylvania. 

ALBERT  H.  SMYTH. 
PHILADELPHIA,  November  1,  1895. 


CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 

rum 

PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITERATURE     .....        1 

CHAPTER  I. 
EARLY  LIFE.     1825-1847 12 

CHAPTER  II. 
REPORTER  AND  TRAVELER.  1848-1853  ...  60 

CHAPTER  III. 
LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.  1854-1860  .  .  .  100 

CHAPTER  IV. 
NOVEL  WRITING.  1861-1866 135 

CHAPTER  V. 
TRANSLATING  FAUST,  AND  OTHER  GERMAN  STUDIES. 

1867-1874 178 

CHAPTER  VI. 
POEMS  AND  PLAYS 211 

CHAPTER  VII. 
LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  1874-1878  .  .  .  .273 

APPENDIX    ....       v       ....    299 
INDEX   ,  .    309 


BATAED  TAYLOR 


INTRODUCTION. 

PENNSYLVANIA   IN   LITERATURE. 

PENNSYLVANIA  has  not  been  well  treated  by  the 
historians  of  American  literature.  Only  twelve 
of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty  poets  recorded  in 
"Griswold's  Cemetery,"  as  Dr.  Holmes  called 
"  The  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America,"  are  Penn- 
sylvanians  ;  and  in  Duyckinck's  "  Cyclopedia  " 
the  proportion  is  about  the  same.  One  facetious 
critic  defined  Pennsylvania  as  "  a  State  more 
famous  for  its  coal  and  iron  than  for  its  litera 
ture,"  and  another  declared  that  her  most  famous 
men  were  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Albert  Gal- 
latin  :  the  one  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  the 
other  of  Geneva. 

Yet,  turning  these  jests  out  of  service,  the 
time  was  when  Philadelphia,  the  Federal  City, 
was  the  centre  of  the  nation's  literary  life. 
Pennsylvania  had  then  so  far  allured  Coleridge 
and  Southey  as  to  give  a  local  habitation  to 


2  BAYARD  TAYLOK. 

their  dreams  of  a  Pantisocracy  upon  the  Susque- 
hanna  ;  Wyoming,  although  mispronounced  by 
Campbell,  had  a  permanent  place  in  English 
literature ;  and  at  least  two  English  poets  — 
Scott  and  Campbell  —  had  proved  michers  and 
appropriated  tempting  lines  from  Philadelphia 
poets. 

As  the  old  capital  of  American  literature, 
Philadelphia  was  commonly  called  "  the  Ameri 
can  Athens  "  long  before  the  title  was  coveted 
by  Boston.  The  best  library  in  the  country 
in  colonial  times  was  owned  in  Philadelphia  by 
James  Logan,  who  had  books  "  so  scarce  that 
neither  price  nor  prayers  could  purchase  them." 
Through  the  practical  thoughtfulness  of  such 
men  as  Franklin,  and  Hopkinson,  and  Robert 
Grace,  the  city  possessed  the  first  circulating 
library  in  the  colonies.  One  hundred  years  ago 
the  American  Academy  in  Boston  was  the  only 
scientific  foundation  within  the  Republic  that 
was  not  in  Philadelphia.  In  politics  and  poetry 
Pennsylvania  led  the  country.  "  The  Farmer's 
Letters  "  of  John  Dickinson  were  the  ablest  and 
most  efficient  political  forces  of  the  pre-revolu- 
tionary  period,  and  they  determined  the  principles 
of  the  Revolution.  William  Cliffton,  a  native  of 
Southwark,  in  Philadelphia,  wrote  the  best  verse 
produced  in  America  in  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  earliest  American  drama,  "  The  Prince  of 


PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITERATURE.          3 

Parthia,"  was  the  work  of  Thomas  Godfrey,  a 
Philadelphian  and  son  of  the  inventor  of  the 
quadrant. 

The  profession  of  letters  began  in  this  country 
with  Charles  Brockden  Brown,  whose  ancestors 
had  come  to  Philadelphia  with  William  Penn  in 
the  Welcome.  It  is  a  singular  chapter  of  lit 
erary  history  that  finds  in  Shelley's  interest  in 
Brown's  romances  the  impulse  to  the  authorship 
of  "  Zastrozzi "  and  "  St.  Irvyne."  Contemporary 
with  Brown,  and  his  successor  in  the  literary 
guild,  Joseph  Dennie,  "the  American  Addison," 
found  his  congenial  home  in  Philadelphia,  and 
drew  about  him  in  the  Tuesday  Club,  and  as 
contributors  to  the  "  Port-Folio,"  nearly  two- 
score  cultivated  Philadelphia  gentlemen,  some  of 
whom  have  since  been  writ  large  in  our  literary 
annals,  while  others  have  disappeared  into  the  ob 
livion  they  merited.  The  press  in  Philadelphia 
was  active  and  bold.  It  gave  to  the  country, 
in  nearly  every  case,  the  first  American  editions 
of  the  classics,  and  of  notable  English  writers. 
Joseph  Hopkinson  edited  the  first,  and  Joseph 
Dennie  annotated  the  second  American  edition 
of  Shakespeare  ;  Robert  Bell  printed  the  first 
Milton,  and  Robert  Aitken  the  first  English 
Bible.  The  long  catalogue  of  minor  publications 
practically  registers  the  culture  of  the  nation. 

Nearly  every  experiment  in  periodical  litera- 


4  SAYAED  TAYLOR. 

ture  was  first  tried  in  Philadelphia,  from  the 
first  monthly  magazine  to  the  first  daily  news 
paper.  Even  after  the  removal  of  the  seat  of 
government,  and  the  vanishing  of  the  cosmopoli 
tan  character  that  for  a  time  had  given  to  the 
city  the  air  of  foreign  capitals,  Philadelphia's 
literary  preeminence  continued  to  draw  to  it  the 
writers  of  New  York  and  of  New  England. 
Hawthorne  makes  Holgrave  in  "  The  House  of 
the  Seven  Gables  "  say,  "  My  name  has  figured, 
I  can  assure  you,  on  the  covers  of  Graham  and 
Godey,  making  as  respectable  an  appearance, 
for  aught  I  could  see,  as  any  of  the  canonized 
bead-roll  with  which  it  was  associated."  Nearly 
every  memorable  name  in  our  literature  confesses 
some  connection  with  the  Philadelphia  press. 
Edgar  Allan  Poe  and  James  Russell  Lowell 
were  editorial  writers  upon  "  Graham's  Maga 
zine,"  John  Greenleaf  Whittier  edited  "The 
Pennsylvania  Freeman,"  and  Washington  Irving 
conducted  "  The  Analectic  Magazine." 

Pennsylvania  furnishes  some  curious  pheno 
mena  of  social  history.  Nowhere  is  there  a  more 
varied  commingling  of  nationalities:  English, 
Scotch,  Irish,  Welsh,  Dutch,  Swedes,  Nor 
wegians,  Danes,1  French,  and  Germans.  In  the 
"  Urlsperger  Nachrichten  "  (HaUe,  1735)  there 
is  a  summary  of  this  amazing  variety  of  blood 
1  Planted  by  Ole  Bull  in  1853. 


PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITERATURE.          5 

and  creed :  "  Diese  Stadt  1st  sehr  florisant.  .  .  . 
Es  1st  hier  ein  Sitz  von  alien  Religionen  und 
Secten,  Luther  anern,  Reformirten,  Bischofli- 
chen,  Presbyterianern,  Catholicken,  Quackern, 
Diimplern,  Meunonisten,  Sabbatheriens,  Sieben- 
tagern,  Separatisten,  Bohmisten,  Schwenkfeld- 
ianern,  Tuchtfelder,  Wohlwiinscher,  Juden,  und 
Heyden" 

The  counties  lying  west  of  the  Susquehanna 
River  along  the  Maryland  line  are  inhabited  by 
Germans  speaking  a  patois  made  up  of  the 
speech  of  the  Rhenish  palatinate  and  an  ad 
mixture  of  English  words  and  phrases.  It  is  a 
dialect  without  a  literature.  The  only  literary 
examples  it  possesses  are  humorous  experiments 
made  by  philological  students.  The  translation 
of  "  Hamlet  "  into  Pennsylvania  Dutch  has  been 
made  memorable  by  its  rendering  of  "I  am 
thy  father's  ghost "  into  the  grotesque  "  Ich  bin 
deim  dawdy,  sei  spook."  Henry  Harbaugh  in 
"  S'alt  Schulhaus  an  der  Krick  "  has  humor 
ously  portrayed  the  provincial  life.  Of  genuine 
German  literature  there  is  very  little  in  the 
State,  but  a  poem  by  a  Moravian  minister  in 
Bethlehem  had  the  honor  of  fixing  Goethe's 
thought  for  a  time  upon  Pennsylvania  and  of 
eliciting  from  him  some  remarkable  verse.  Pas 
tor  Gregor  addressed  to  his  daughter  on  her 
eleventh  birthday  a  poetic  epistle,  "  Aus  Bethle- 


6  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

hem  nach  Herrenhut."  Its  quaint  language 
and  naive  sentiment  held  the  attention  of  Goethe, 
who  wrote  a  parallel  to  it,  "  Nicht  am  Susque- 
hanna  ; "  both  the  original  epistle  and  the  par 
allel  are  printed  in  volume  forty-seven  of  the 
1833  edition  of  Goethe.1 

The  Scotch-Irish  who  were  originally  centred 
about  Lancaster,  Paxton,  and  Hanover  have 
now  gone  farther  westward.  With  all  their 
personal  force,  and  good  qualities  as  pioneers, 
they  were  bare  of  sentiment  and  barren  of  im 
agination  ;  and  in  Pennsylvania,  as  elsewhere, 
showed  themselves  unable  to  shake  off  their 
sterile  curse.  Two  only  of  this  strain  contribu 
ted  to  Pennsylvanian  literature  :  H.  H.  Bracken- 
ridge  of  Carlisle,  who  wrote  "  Modern  Chivalry," 
the  first  satirical  novel,  and  D.  Bruce  of  Wash 
ington  County,  the  lonely  poet  of  his  race.2 

Southern  Lancaster,  Southern  Chester,  and 
Delaware  counties  have  been  for  two  hundred 
years  occupied  by  English  Quakers,  the  most 
intelligent  population  in  the  State,  and  the 
descendants  for  the  most  part  of  Penn's  colonists. 
The  territory  which  they  have  occupied  is  the 

1  The  Susquehanna  flows  freely  through  European  litera 
ture,  but  nowhere  more  sweetly  than  in  Nicolaus  Lenau's  Der 
Indianerzug.     In    American  poetry   Dr.   Caleb   Harlan's  El- 
flora  of  the  Susquehanna  will  be  remembered. 

2  Poems  chiefly   in   the   Scottish  Dialect,   originally   written 
under  the  signature  of  the  Scots-Irishman,  Washington,  1801. 


PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITERATURE.          7 

great  limestone  plain  extending  to  within  twenty 
miles  of  Philadelphia.  It  is  a  land  of  old  and 
rare  beauty,  of  rich  farms  and  old  families.  It 
is  a  rolling  country,  perpetually  diversified  ;  its 
pastoral  loveliness,  its  wooded  slopes,  and  narrow 
valleys  continually  recall  the  scenery  of  midland 
England.  The  roads  go  curling  and  curving 
along  the  flanks  of  low  hills,  and  by  the  wayside 
creep  the  trim  hedges  of  osage-orange. 

Men  and  women  from  woody  Warwickshire 
built  the  comfortable  stone  houses  upon  the  fat 
farms  in  this  mellow  land,  and  here  they  lived 
their  simple  lives,  morally  austere,  — 

"  Seeing  the  sternness  of  life,  but,  alas !  overlooking1  its  graces." 

Simplicity  of  manners,  loyalty  to  truth,  justice, 
peace,  and  humanity  are  the  virtues  reverenced 
and  practiced  by  the  Quakers.  But  their  lives 
were  not  adorned  and  enlarged  by  the  refining 
influences  of  the  gentle  arts.  Their  sense  of 
art  was  dull.  They  hung  no  pictures  upon 
their  blank  walls,  nor  listened  to  the  touches 
of  sweet  harmony.  No  line  of  beauty  ever 
disturbed  the  grave  and  stern  decorum  of  their 
sober  meeting-houses.  It  is  not  an  advantage 
to  any  lover  of  the  arts  to  have  two  t>r  three 
generations  of  Quaker  ancestry.  Bernard 
Barton,  the  Quaker  poet  of  England,  before 
he  published  a  volume  of  verse,  consulted  with 


8  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Robert  Southey  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  pro 
ject,  for  he  feared  mightily  the  censure  of  his 
friends  for  devoting  himself  to  poetry.  Whit- 
tier,  when  making  his  "  Songs  of  Three  Cen 
turies,"  found  it  necessary  to  omit,  though  with 
some  heaviness  of  heart,  the  best  and  most  char 
acteristic  examples  of  Thomas  Campbell, because 
they  were  battle-pieces.  There  were  books  and 
learning  among  the  Friends  ;  but  the  unbending 
moral  austerity,  the  narrow  grooves  in  which 
their  lives  ran,  the  repression  that  stamped  their 
faces  and  their  characters,  the  little  oddities 
and  prejudices  for  which  they  passionately  con 
tended,  were  an  unpromising  soil  for  literature 
to  flourish  in. 

About  1820  the  prestige  of  Philadelphia  as  a 
literary  centre  began  to  fade.  In  the  periodicals 
of  that  period  is  to  be  detected  an  accent  of 
discontent  and  fear,  rising  sometimes  into  a  note 
of  alarm.  As  new  lights  shine  out  in  New  Eng 
land  and  in  New  York  the  jealous  editor  of  the 
"  Port-Folio  "  writes,  "  With  such  rivalry  Phila 
delphia  must  yield  the  proud  title  which  she  has 
borne,  or  rouse  from  the  withering  lethargy  in 
which  she  slumbers."  The  conservatism  that 
was  fostered  by  the  Quaker  temper,  and  by  the 
spirit  that  was  alien  to  art,  was  in  no  small 
measure  responsible  for  the  decline  of  literary 
activity.  New  York  was  responsive  to  the  new 


PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITEEATUEE. 

forces  and  influences  in  literature.  Philadelphia 
clung  to  the  traditions  that  bore  sway  when  the 
colony  was  young.  Wordsworth  made  Bryant, 
and  Cooper  followed  Scott ;  Philadelphia  laughed 
at  all  the  Goths  of  the  romantic  school,  and  con 
tinued  to  draw  her  poetry  from  Pope  and  her 
prose  from  Addison.  "  William  Wordsworth," 
said  the  "  Port-Folio  "  in  1809,  "  stands  among 
the  foremost  of  those  English  bards  who  have 
mistaken  silliness  for  simplicity,  and  with  a  false 
and  affected  taste  filled  their  papers  with  the 
language  of  children  and  clowns."  1 

The  resistance  to  new  ideas  which  William 
Cliffton  at  the  time  of  Jay's  treaty  had  lamented 
as  one  of  the  characteristics  of  Pennsylvania, 
and  which  had  become  more  pronounced  after 
the  disappearance  of  the  foreign  society  from 
Philadelphia,  would  have  been  enough  in  itself 
to  chill  the  literary  spirit  and  to  bring  to  nothing 
its  endeavor,  but  the  passing  of  the  sceptre  was 
greatly  accelerated  by  the  opening  in  1825  of 
the  Erie  Canal  and  the  settlement  of  the  West  by 
way  of  New  York. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  this  time,  when 

1  At  a  later  period,  indeed,  Henry  Reed  was  the  ablest  inter 
preter  of  Wordsworth,  and  George  Allen  the  most  learned 
disciple  of  Coleridge,  but  the  former  was  too  soon  lost  in  the 
wreck  of  the  Arctic,  and  the  genius  of  the  latter  was  rather 
critical  than  creative,  and  his  influence  chiefly  pedagogic  and 
theological. 


10  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

the  feuilletonists  were  in  despair  for  Pennsyl 
vania,  four  of  the  chief  poets  of  the  State,  in 
four  successive  years,  were  born :  T.  Buchanan 
Read,  in  Chester  County,  in  1822,  George  Henry 
Boker,  in  Philadelphia,  in  1823,  Charles  Godfrey 
Leland,  in  Philadelphia,  in  1824,  and  Bayard 
Taylor,  in  Chester  County,  in  1825. 

Bayard  Taylor's  faith  and  discipline  were 
rooted  in  Quaker  reason  and  practice.  But  he 
was  German  as  well  as  English,  and  the  Teu 
tonic  strain  saved  him  from  the  icy  current  and 
compulsive  course  to  which  his  surroundings 
seemed  to  consign  him. 

"  Was  it  my  fault,  if  a  strain  of  the  distant  and  dead  generations 
Rose  in  my  being,  renewed,  and  made  me  other  than  these  are? 
Purer,  perhaps,  their  habit  of  law  than  the  freedom  they 

shrink  from ; 

So,  restricted  by  will,  a  little  indulgence  is  riot. 
They,  content  with  the  glow  of  a  carefully  tempered  twilight, 
Measured  pulses  of  joy,  and  colorless  growth  of  the  senses, 
Stand  aghast  at  my  dream  of  the  sun,  and  the  sound,  and  the 

splendor ! 

Mine  it  is,  and  remains,  resenting  the  threat  of  suppression, 
Stubbornly  shaping  my  life,  and  feeding  with  fragments  its 

hunger, 

Drifted  from  Attican  hills  to  stray  on  a  Scythian  level,  — 
So  unto  me  it  appears,  —  unto  them  a  perversion  and  scandal." 

Bayard  Taylor's  life  is  so  closely  interwoven 
with  the  social  conditions  of  Pennsylvania  that 
the  foregoing  brief  recital  of  his  racial  and  cul 
tural  surroundings  seems  indispensable  to  a 


PENNSYLVANIA  IN  LITEEATUEE.          l 

proper  appreciation  or  interpretation.  That  he 
was  allied  by  kindred  blood  to  Pastor  Gregor's 
people  is  the  explanation  of  the  Goethe  studies, 
the  translation  of  "  Faust,"  and  the  ministry  to 
Germany.  Without  the  inherited  conservatism, 
energy,  and  thrift  of  the  Cheshire  Taylors  and 
Wiltshire  Mendenhalls  he  never  would  have 
built  Cedarcroft,  nor  taken  the  wind  of  the 
world  in  all  its  moods. 


CHAPTER  I. 

EARLY   LIFE. 

1825-1847. 

BAYARD  TAYLOR  was  just  as  old  as  the  rail 
way.  He  was  born  at  Kennett  Square,  Ches 
ter  County,  Pennsylvania,  in  a  two-story  stone 
house,  not  now  standing,  on  the  eleventh  of  Jan 
uary,  1825,  "  the  year  when  the  first  locomotive 
successfully  performed  its  trial  trip." 

His  father,  Joseph  Taylor,  was  a  direct  de 
scendant  in  the  sixth  generation  of  Robert 
Taylor  of  Little  Leigh,  Cheshire,  who  came 
over  with  William  Penn,  and  settled  near  the 
Brandywine  Creek.  The  family  lived  obedient 
to  Quaker  principles  until  Bayard's  grandfather, 
John  Taylor,  married  Ann  Bucher,  daughter  of 
Christian  Bucher,  a  Swiss  Mennonite  of  Lan 
caster  County,  and  granddaughter  of  Melchior 
Breneman,  a  Mennonite  minister  whose  grand 
father  came  from  Switzerland  in  the  Mennonite 
emigration  of  1709,  and  took  up  a  large  tract 
of  land  south  of  the  present  city  of  Lancaster. 
For  refusing  to  say  that  he  was  sorry  for  his 


EARLY  LIFE.  13 

runaway  love  match,  John  Taylor  was  expelled 
from  meeting. 

A  second  strain  of  German  blood  Bayard 
Taylor  inherited  from  his  grandmother  on  the 
mother's  side,  who  was  of  South  German  or 
East  Switzerland  origin.  To  this  infusion  of  a 
foreign  element  Taylor  refers  in  "  The  Palm 
and  the  Pine:"  — 

"  For,  as  a  fountain  disappears, 
To  gush  again  in  later  years, 

"  So  hidden  blood  may  find  the  day, 
When  centuries  have  rolled  away; 

"  And  fresher  lives  betray  at  last 
The  lineage  of  a  far-off  Past. 

"  That  nature,  mixed  of  sun  and  snow, 
Repeats  its  ancient  ebb  and  flow  : 

"  The  children  of  the  Palm  and  Pine 
Renew  their  blended  lives  —  in  mine." 

Doubtless  to  his  German  stock  was  due  the 
strong  attraction  that  Teutonic  studies  had  for 
him,  and  to  it  he  was  wont  to  trace  his  "  Lust 
zu  fabuliren." 

Joseph  Taylor  and  Rebecca  Way  were  mar 
ried  in  Brandywine  Township,  October  15,  1818. 
Bayard  Taylor  was  the  fourth  child  of  this 
marriage,  and  the  first  to  outlive  infancy. 
Through  his  mother,  who  was  a  granddaughter 


14  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

of  Kebecca  (Mendenhall)  Way,  he  was  related 
to  the  ancient  family  of  the  Mendenhalls  whose 
ancestral  home  was  the  manor  of  Mildenhall 
in  Wiltshire.  Benjamin  Mendenhall  came  to 
Pennsylvania  with  William  Penn,  and  settled  at 
Concord,  in  what  is  now  Delaware  County.  His 
daughter  Anne  became  the  second  wife  of  John 
Bartram,  whom  Linnaeus  cited  as  the  greatest 
natural  botanist  in  the  world. 

Although  Joseph  Taylor  was  not  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  Friends,  his  children  were  in 
structed  in  Quaker  manners  and  beliefs,  and 
upon  Quaker  principles  the  steadfast  faith  and 
simple  morals  of  Bayard  Taylor  rested.  His 
mother's  earnest  teaching  of  non-resistance  and 
the  sin  of  swearing  had  its  legitimate  fruit  in 
"  the  chastity  of  temperate  blood  "  and  "  the  set 
tled  faith  that  nothing  shakes."  Once,  after  a 
homily  upon  swearing,  the  lad  was  seized  with 
such  a  desire  to  swear  that  he  went  forth  alone 
into  a  field,  and  there  "  snatched  a  fearful  joy  " 
by  cleansing  his  stuffed  bosom  of  all  the  peril 
ous  oaths  he  had  ever  heard.  The  childish 
mutiny  was  a  portent  of  his  future  rebellion 
against  the  "  pious  Quaker  repression  "  of  which 
he  speaks  in  "  Home  Pastorals." 

"  Weary  am  I  with  all  this  preaching-  the  force  of  example, 
Painful  duty  to  self,  and  painfuller  still  to  one's  neighbor, 
Moral  shibboleths,  dinned  in  one's  ears  with  slavering1  unction, 
Till,  for  the  sake  of  a  change,  profanity  loses  its  terrors." 


EARLY  LIFE.  15 

Out  of  admiration  for  Senator  James  A. 
Bayard  of  Delaware,  Joseph  and  Rebecca  Tay 
lor  gave  his  chivalric  and  poetic  name  to  their 
son,  who  in  his  youth  wrote  his  name  J.  Bayard 
Taylor,  but  a  few  years  after  coming  of  age 
wisely  discarded  the  first  initial.  The  family 
moved  in  1829  to  a  farm  which  was  a  part  of 
the  original  land-grant  made  to  Robert  Taylor 
by  William  Penn  ;  it  was  in  East  Marlborough 
Township,  one  mile  from  Kennett  Square. 
Humble  means  and  fresh  country  air  are  per 
haps  the  most  fortunate  endowments  of  young 
genius,  and  to  the  free  and  active  life  of  Hazel- 
dell  Farm  Bayard  Taylor  was  indebted  for  the 
robust  health  that  enabled  him  to  carry  forward 
his  great  burden  of  tasks,  and  for  the  buoyant 
spirits  that  made  him,  like  a  holy  witch,  en 
chant  societies  unto  him. 

If  his  childhood  was  remarkable  for  anything, 
it  was  for  a  roving  disposition  that  led  him 
to  strange  explorations,  and  for  a  fondness  for 
making  collections  from  nature.  "  Almost  my 
first  recollection,"  he  wrote  in  "  At  Home  and 
Abroad,"  "is  of  a  swamp,  into  which  I  went 
bare-legged  at  morning,  and  out  of  which  I 
came,  when  driven  by  hunger,  with  long  stock 
ings  of  black  mud,  and  a  mask  of  the  same.  .  .  » 
The  treasures  I  there  collected  were  black  terra 
pins  with  orange  spots,  baby  frogs  the  size  of  a 


16  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

chestnut,  thrushes'  eggs,  and  stems  of  purple 
phlox."  As  a  lad  of  fourteen  he  rose  to  the 
higher  dignity  of  making  a  mineralogical  collec 
tion  and  a  herbarium. 

He  learned  to  read  when  he  was  four  years 
old,  and  the  passion  for  books  that  began  with 
"Captain  Riley's  Narrative,"  and  "Peter  Par 
ley,"  and  Scott's  poetry,  and  Gibbon's  "  Rome," 
and  was  whetted  by  the  two  hundred  volumes  of 
the  Kennett  library,  passed  almost  instantly  and 
imperceptibly  into  the  enthusiasm  for  author 
ship.  He  was  seven  years  of  age  when  he  wrote 
his  first  poems,  and  added  them  to  the  neat 
copies  that  he  had  made  of  Scott  and  Campbell. 
When  the  news  of  Byron's  death  reached  Eng 
land,  Tennyson,  then  a  lad  of  fifteen,  crept 
away  into  a  lonely  glen  of  Lincolnshire,  and  in 
the  bitterness  of  grief  carved  upon  a  rock,  "  By 
ron  is  dead !  "  A  like  passion  for  literature  and 
for  men  of  letters  possessed  the  boy  Taylor,  and 
among  his  earliest  memories  the  deaths,  in  1832, 
of  Goethe  and  Scott  held  high  and  sacred  place. 
His  fondness  for  books  and  reading  and  his 
dislike  of  the  farm  labor  brought  him  at  times 
beneath  his  father's  frown.  Hawthorne  at 
Brook  Farm,  with  a  shiver  of  disgust,  said  that 
he  had  expected  to  live  in  Arcady  and  found 
himself  up  to  the  chin  in  a  barnyard ;  in  like 
manner  Taylor's  delicately  adjusted  nervous  or- 


EARLY  LIFE.  17 

ganization  shrank  from  the  coarse  and  homely 
duties  of  the  garden  and  the  field,  and  his  mo 
ther  had  frequently  to  screen  him  by  employing 
him  to  ply  some  light  task  within  the  house. 
He  worked  industriously  at  many  things,  some 
times  drying  and  selling  lobelia  and  sumac,  in 
order  to  obtain  pocket  money  whereby  to  in 
crease  his  little  store  of  books. 

One  of  the  distressful  strokes  his  youth  suf 
fered  was  on  the  day  that  it  became  his  duty  to 
ride  to  the  mill  and  to  bring  home  the  heavy 
flour  bags  which  would  persist  in  falling  off, 
whereupon  he  would  sit  in  mute  despair  beside 
the  giant  sacks  and  await  the  coming  of  a 
stronger  arm.  He  was,  withal,  full  of  fun  and 
mischief.  The  tricks  and  pranks  of  Joe  and 
Jake  Fairthorn  in  "The  Story  of  Kennett"  are 
Taylor's  recollections  of  his  own  boyhood,  as 
when  he  frightened  the  old  Swiss  servant,  Vic- 
torine,  into  shrieking  "  Christus,  Marie,  und 
Joseph !  "  by  his  horrified  report  of  his  brother's 
imaginary  fall  from  the  big  cherry-tree  ("  Story 
of  Kennett,"  p.  51). 

Pie  was  sent  in  his  sixth  year  to  a  dame's 
school  kept  by  Ruth  Anne  Chambers.  It  was 
a  little  log  schoolhouse  with  a  chestnut  grove 
behind  it.  "  His  way  thither  was  through  a 
lonely  meadow  on  his  father's  farm,  and  a  piece 
of  woodland."  He  retained  an  abiding  recol- 


18  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

lection  of  the  terrors  he  felt  in  running  in  the 
darkness  of  the  wood  and  fearfully  listening  to 
the  rush  of  the  wind.  Wordsworth's  "  Wan 
derer  "  at  like  age  had 

"  Traveled  through  the  woods  with  no  one  near 
To  whom  he  might  confess  the  things  he  saw." 

And  so  the  foundations  of  Taylor's  mind  were 
laid:  — 

"  In  such  communion  not  from  terror  free, 
While  yet  a  child,  and  long  before  his  time 
Had  he  perceived  the  presence  and  the  power 
Of  greatness." 

Another  school  to  which  he  was  put  was  on 
the  Toughkenamon  road,  —  a  locality  afterwards 
celebrated  in  "The  Story  of  Kennett," —  and 
was  kept  by  Samuel  Martin.  The  love  of  color 
which  later  was  to  light  up  his  pictures  of  tropi 
cal  scenery  then  found  its  juvenile  expression  in 
drawing  and  painting.  He  illustrated  his  verse- 
book  in  colors,  and  made  drawings  of  "  Byron's 
Dream  "  and  other  poetic  rhapsodies.  When 
he  came  to  write  "  The  Picture  of  St.  John," 
and  dedicated  the  work  to  the  artists  he  had 
known,  he  expressed,  in  rather  juvenile  verse,  a 
half  regret  for  this  untraveled  roadway  in  his 
life. 

"  And  though  some  sportive  nymph  the  channel  turned 
And  led  to  other  fields  mine  infant  rill, 
The  sense  df  fancied  destination  still 
Leaps  in  its  waves,  and  will  not  be  unlearned. 


EARLY  LIFE.  19 

I  charge  not  Fate  with  having1  done  me  wrong  ; 
Much  hath  she  granted,  though  so  much  was  spurned ; 
But  leave  the  keys  of  Color  silent  long, 
And  pour  my  being  through  the  stops  of  song." 

So  genuine  was  this  instinct  for  art,  that  in 
1839  he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  distinguished 
engraver,  Mr.  John  Sartain,  asking  to  be  re 
ceived  as  an  apprentice;  and  the  impulse  to 
painting,  in  1840,  was  as  strong  with  him  as  it 
had  been  with  Allston  and  with  Read. 

Joseph  Taylor  was  elected  sheriff  of  Chester 
County  in  1837,  and  the  family  for  the  three 
years  following  resided  at  West  Chester,  where 
Bayard  went  to  Bolmar's  Academy.  Dr. 
Thomas  Dunn  English  of  Philadelphia,  at  that 
time  unknown  as  an  author,  and  newly  gradu 
ated  from  the  medical  school  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  lectured  in  West  Chester  in 
the  summer  of  1839  upon  phrenology.  The 
Quaker  with  his  "  inward  light "  and  openness 
to  all  spiritual  influences  listened  attentively  to 
the  presentation  of  the  theories  of  Mesmer,  and 
of  Gall,  and  Spurzheim.  The  morning  after 
the  lecture  Dr.  English,  at  the  invitation  of  his 
friend  and  fellow-alumnus,  Dr.  Hartman,  who 
later  acquired  fame  as  a  conchologist,  visited 
the  jail  and  greatly  amused  Sheriff  Taylor  by 
examining  the  formation  of  heads  and  casting 
characters  and  dispositions.  "  After  it  was 


20  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

through  "  (writes  Dr.  English  to  me  in  a  letter 
of  December  14,  1894),  "  we  passed  into  the 
office.  There  was  a  lank,  long-legged,  half -grown 
boy  seated  on  a  high  stool,  and  the  sheriff  said, 
'  There  is  my  son ;  what  do  you  think  of  him  ? 
I  propose  to  make  a  farmer  out  of  him.  Do  you 
think  he  is  fitted  for  it  ? '  I  took  a  glance  at 
the  head,  which  was  a  very  marked  one,  and 
said,  'You  will  never  make  a  farmer  of  him 
to  any  great  extent :  you  will  never  keep  him 
home ;  that  boy  will  ramble  around  the  world, 
and  furthermore,  he  has  all  the  marks  of  a 
poet.'  At  this  the  sheriff  laughed  immensely. 
The  sheriff's  name  was  Taylor,  and  this  was  his 
son  Bayard,  afterwards  traveler,  poet,  and  min 
ister  to  Berlin."  This  story  was  first  told  in 
the  West  Chester  local  paper  by  Dr.  W.  D. 
Hartman,  who  is  the -original  of  the  old  physi 
cian  in  "  Joseph  and  his  Friend."  Bayard  was 
at  this  time  fourteen  years  old,  and  Dr.  Eng 
lish  had  curiously  divined  the  two  controlling 
instincts  of  his  life.  Already  his  reading  had 
taken  two  directions,  and  poetry  and  travels 
were  eagerly  sought  after.  From  his  seventh 
year  he  composed  poetry,  mostly  by  way  of  im 
itation,  and  in  1841  a  "  Soliloquy  of  a  Young 
Poet,"  his  first  published  poem,  appeared  in 
the  "  Saturday  Evening  Post."  When  he  was 
seventeen  lie  was  enthusiastic  over  Bryant,  and 


EAELY  LIFE.  21 

Longfellow,  and  Whittier,  and  Lowell,  —  "all 
Americans,  you  know,"  he  wrote  to  J.  B.  Phil 
lips,  —  and  he  felt  the  greatest  sorrow  at  the 
death  of  Channing  (1842),  uas  much  so,  per 
haps,  as  if  he  were  a  near  and  dear  friend."  His 
earliest  prose  themes  were  travels,  or  at  least 
descriptions  of  foreign  and  romantic  scenes. 
His  schoolfellows  ridiculed  him  for  his  dreams 
of  travel.  George  Macdonald  represents  one 
of  his  heroes,  a  wanderer  in  the  world,  as  pos 
sessed  with  the  instinctive  desire  to  climb  to  the 
summits  of  the  highest  hills  and  to  the  top  of 
tallest  steeples  to  look  abroad  over  wide  stretches 
of  country.  The  same  passion  was  in  Taylor 
from  childhood.  He  wrote  in  "  At  Home  and 
Abroad :  "  "In  looking  back  to  my  childhood  I 
can  recall  the  intensest  desire  to  climb  upward, 
so  that  without  shifting  the  circle  of  my  horizon, 
I  could  yet  extend  it,  and  take  in  a  far  wider 
sweep  of  vision.  I  envied  every  bird  that  sat 
swinging  upon  the  topmost  bough  of  the  great 
century-old  cherry-tree  ;  the  weathercock  on  our 
barn  seemed  to  me  to  whirl  in  a  higher  region 
of  the  air ;  and  to  rise  from  the  earth  in  a  bal 
loon  was  a  bliss  which  I  would  almost  have 
given  my  life  to  enjoy." 

Shortly  before  the  sheriff's  term  of  service 
expired  and  the  family  returned  to  Kennett, 
Bayard  Taylor  was  sent  (1839-40)  to  Unionville 


22  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Academy,  where  he  received  the  last  of  his 
schooling.  Union ville  is  an  interesting  village 
of  three  hundred  inhabitants,  built  upon  high 
banks  along  the  State  Road,  a  highway  that  con 
tinues  the  Lancaster  Pike  from  Philadelphia  to 
Oxford.  The  little  houses  with  porches  and 
round  pillars  are  completely  embowered  in  trees. 
At  the  east  end  of  the  town  stands  the  ivy-cov 
ered  house  of  Martha  Deane  celebrated  in  "  The 
Story  of  Kennett."  At  the  opposite  end  is  the 
schoolhouse,  now  enlarged  and  translated  into 
a  high  school,  where  fifty  years  ago  Jonathan 
Gause  bore  his  mild  sway;  and  in  its  new  bel 
fry  swings  the  old  bell  that  rang  when  Taylor 
was  a  student,  and  whose  clear  tones  can  be 
heard  on  favorable  days  in  Kennett,  four  miles 
away.  In  1840  Union  ville  was  a  bustling  place. 
It  was  an  important  cattle-market ;  often  a 
thousand  head  of  cattle  were  sold  in  a  day. 
Bayard  Taylor  while  a  student  must  have  seen 
the  great  cattle  from  the  Western  Reserve  and 
the  small  kine  from  Maryland  driven  into  the 
town ;  and  among  the  drovers  from  a  West 
Virginian  farm  he  may  have  seen  a  tall  spare 
youth,  one  year  his  senior,  who  was  destined  to 
win  high  fame  in  American  history  and  to  bear 
the  name  of  "  Stonewall "  Jackson. 

Jonathan  Gause  was  thorough  in  his  methods, 
and    successful   in    his    teaching.      From    his 


EAELY  LIFE.  23 

Academy  Dr.  Isaac  Hayes,  the  arctic  explorer, 
was  graduated,  and  among  Taylor's  fellow 
students  were  John  Smith  Futhey  and  R.  E. 
Monaghan,  both  of  whom  became  prominent  in 
good  works  in  Chester  County. 

These  three  friends  made  a  tramp  trip,  April 
5,  1840,  from  Union ville  to  the  battlefield  of 
the  Brandywine.  It  was  the  first  of  Taylor's 
travels,  and  the  account  of  it  which  appeared  in 
the  same  year  in  the  "  West  Chester  Register  " 
was  his  first  publication.  At  this  time  he  was 
studying  Latin  and  French  and  conning  such 
native  Chester  County  text-books  as  Lewis's 
Algebra  and  Gummere's  Surveying.  German 
he  had  already  in  part  acquired  from  Wieland's 
"  Oberon,"  and  from  his  grandmother  and  the 
Swiss  servant  of  the  family. 

His  verbal  memory  and  his  facility  in  rhymes 
were  chiefly  noticeable.  Gause  applauded  his 
quickness,  and  set  him  upon  memorizing  poems 
and  orations,  which  he  accomplished  in  an  aston 
ishingly  short  time.  His  memory  was  not  only 
quick  but  tenacious,  and  the  poems  committed 
in  childhood  remained  with  him  through  life. 
Indeed,  as  was  the  case  with  Macaulay,  the 
retentiveness  of  his  memory  was  not  always  a 
blessing,  for  it  was  as  indiscriminate  in  its  appro 
priations  as  it  was  unyielding  in  its  grasp.  He 
was  forever  composing  acrostics  on  his  fellow 


24  BAYABD   TAYLOR. 

students  and  caricaturing  them  in  rhymes  and 
in  drawings,  and  this  pert  and  nimble  spirit  of 
mirth  continued  with  him  through  life,  prompt 
ing  him  to  innocent  mischief  and  making  him 
the  sunniest  companion  in  every  social  group. 
He  was  well  aware  that  he  had  no  prospect  of 
collegiate  education,  and  he  made  the  most  of 
his  time  at  Union ville.  His  restless  intellect 
was  supported  by  abundant  physical  health. 
He  enjoyed  the  raptures  of  intellectual  excite 
ment.  He  was  thrilled  with  the  aspirations 
which  his  reading  kindled  ;  and  the  great  world 
of  literature  stood  before  him,  —  the  paradise 
of  his  constant  endeavor.  He  addressed  a  let 
ter  to  Charles  Dickens  which  brought  an  auto 
graph  reply,  and  in  consequence  the  lad  was 
caught  up  into  the  seventh  heaven  of  ecstasy. 
"  I  can  long  recollect  the  thrill  of  pleasure  I  ex 
perienced  on  seeing  the  autograph  of  one  whose 
writings  I  so  ardently  admired  and  to  whom,  in 
spirit,  I  felt  myself  attached  ;  and  it  was  not 
without  a  feeling  of  ambition  that  I  looked  upon 
it  that  as  he,  an  humble  clerk,  had  risen  to  be 
the  guest  of  a  mighty  nation,  so  I,  an  humble 
pedagogue,  might,  by  unremitted  and  arduous 
intellectual  and  moral  exertion,  become  a  light, 
a  star,  among  the  names  of  my  country.  May 
it  be !  " 

No  doubt  when  he  came  to  write  "  John  God- 


EAELY  LIFE.  25 

frey's  Fortunes,"  which  is  more  than  "  a  story 
of  American  life,"  as  he  calls  it,  for  it  is  really 
a  fragment  of  his  autobiography,  he  reverted  in 
affectionate  memory  to  those  early  thrills  and 
aspirations  when  the  world  of  letters  was  the 
ideal  world,  and  authors  occupied  sacred  places 
in  his  rapt  Pantheon.  It  is  of  the  publication  of 
his  first  poem  in  the  "  Saturday  Evening  Post " 
of  Philadelphia,  when  he  was  sixteen  years  of 
age,  that  he  is  thinking  when  he  makes  John 
Godfrey  say :  "  My  intention  had  been  to  de 
liver  the  letter  at  the  office  of  the  paper  as  if  I 
had  been  simply  its  bearer  and  not  its  author. 
But  after  I  had  mounted  two  dark  steep  flights 
of  steps,  and  found  myself  before  the  door, 
my  courage  failed  me.  I  heard  voices  within : 
there  were  several  persons,  then.  They  would 
be  certain  to  look  at  me  sharply  —  to  notice  my 
agitation  —  perhaps  to  question  me  about  the 
letter.  While  I  was  standing  thus,  twisting  and 
turning  it  in  my  hand,  in  a  veritable  perspi 
ration  from  excitement,  I  heard  footsteps  de 
scending  from  an  upper  story.  Desperate  and 
panic-stricken,  I  laid  the  letter  hastily  on  the 
floor,  at  the  door  of  the  office,  and  rushed  down 
to  the  street  as  rapidly  and  silently  as  possible. 
Without  looking  around,  I  walked  up  Chestnut 
Street  with  a  fearful  impression  that  somebody 
was  following  me,  and,  turning  the  corner  of 


26  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Fourth,  began  to  read  the  titles  of  the  books  in 
Hart's  window.  Five  minutes  having  elapsed, 
I  knew  that  I  was  not  discovered,  and  recovered 
my  composure,  though,  now  that  the  poem  had 
gone  out  of  my  hands,  I  would  have  given  any 
thing  to  get  it  back  again. 

"  When  the  next  number  of  the  paper  arrived, 
I  tore  off  the  wrapper  with  trembling  fingers 
and  turned  to  the  fateful  column  on  the  second 
page.  But  I  might  as  well  have  postponed  my 
excitement:  there  was  no  notice  of  the  poem. 
Perhaps  they  had  never  received  the  letter  — 
perhaps  it  had  been  trodden  upon  and  defaced, 
and  swept  down  stairs  by  the  office  boy  !  These 
were,  at  least,  consoling  possibilities,  —  better 
that  than  to  be  contemptuously  ignored.  By  the 
following  week  my  fever  was  nearly  over,  and 
I  opened  the  paper  with  but  a  faint  expecta 
tion  of  finding  anything  ;  but  lo  !  there  it  was  — 
4  Selim  '  at  the  very  head  of  the  announcements ! 
These  were  the  precious  words :  '  We  are  obliged 
to  "  Selim  "  for  his  poem,  which  we  shall  pub 
lish  shortly.  It  shows  the  hand  of  youth,  but 
evinces  a  flattering  promise.  Let  him  trim  the 
midnight  lamp  with  diligence.' 

"  If  the  sinking  sun  had  wheeled  about  and 
gone  up  the  western  sky,  or  the  budding  trees 
had  snapped  into  full  leaf  in  five  minutes,  I  don't 
believe  it  would  have  astonished  me.  I  was  on 


EARLY  LIFE.  27 

my  way  home  from  the  post-office  when  I  read 
the  lines,  and  I  remember  turning  out  of  Penn 
Street  to  go  by  a  more  secluded  and  circuitous 
way,  lest  I  should  be  tempted  to  cut  a  pigeon- 
wing  on  the  pavement  in  the  sight  of  the  multi 
tude.  I  passed  a  little  brick  building,  with  a  tin 
sign  on  the  shutter,  —  4  D.  J.  Mulford,  Attorney 
at  Law.'  l  Pooh ! '  I  said  to  myself  ;  4  what 's 
D.  J.  Mulford  ?  He  never  published  a  poem  in 
his  life  ! '  As  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  his  head, 
silhouetted  against  the  back  window,  I  found 
myself,  nevertheless,  rather  inclined  to  pity  him 
for  being;  unconscious  that  the  author  of  '  The 

O 

Unknown  Bard '  was  at  that  moment  passing 
his  door."  l 

While  he  thus  lived  in  fantasy,  and  dreamed 
great  dreams,  his  connection  with  Unionville,  as 
student  and  as  tutor,  ceased  (March  26,  1842), 
and  he  went  back  to  the  farm.  Upon  his  right 
hand,  as  he  journeyed  away  from  the  place  where 
the  eager  currents  of  his  young  life  had  been 
restrained,  lay  the  farm  to  which  he  was  later 
to  give  literary  interest  by  his  ballad  of  "  John 
Reed."  And  perhaps,  enthusiastic  as  he  was, 
had  he  stopped  to  ponder  upon  the  coming  years 
he  would  have  anticipated  the  sad  strain  of  the 
ballad :  - 

1  Bayard  Taylor's  poem  The  Nameless  Bard  was  published 
in  Graham's  Magazine,  August,  1843. 


• 

BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

"  It  's  the  hankering  after  a  life  that  you  never  have  learned  to 

know, 

It 's  the  discontent  with  a  life  that  is  always  thus  and  so ; 
It 's  the  wondering  what  we  are,  and  where  we  are  going  to  go." 

He  remained  at  home  but  a  few  weeks.  He 
was  no  better  satisfied  than  he  had  been  in  child 
hood  with  the  labor  of  the  farm,  and  his  father 
consented  to  apprentice  him  for  four  years  to 
Henry  S.  Evans,  printer,  in  West  Chester.  In 
May  he  began  his  new  life  as  a  compositor  in  the 
"  Village  Record "  office,  and  boarded  with  the 
other  apprentices  in  Henry  Evans's  house  upon 
the  Strasburgh  road.  There  was  culture  in 
West  Chester  and  there  were  libraries.  The 
intellectual  curiosity  of  the  people  was  rather 
toward  science  than  literature.  The  study  of 
plants  and  shells  and  minerals  was  placed  higher 
than  the  gift  of  graceful  expression.  The  lad 
who  was  helped  with  his  herbarium  and  his  min 
eral  cabinet  was  discouraged  from  poetry  and 
romance.  The  severe  practicality  of  the  Penn- 
sylvanians,  both  English  and  German,  led  to  the 
achievements  of  Humphrey  Marshall  and  Gott- 
hilf  Muhlenberg,  the  Bartrams  and  the  Dar- 
lingtons,  and  in  our  own  day  has  awarded  the 
highest  scientific  honors  to  the  Pennsylvania 
German  Dr.  Leidy,  and  the  English  Pennsylva- 
nians  Cope  and  Brinton. 

"  The  Village  Record "   was  a   good  school. 


EABLY  LIFE.  29 

It  had  a  literary  tradition.  Its  former  editor, 
Charles  Miner,  who  wrote  the  history  of  Wyo 
ming,  had  been  gifted  with  some  sense  of  literary 
form  and  perspective,  and  he  had  given  charac 
ter  and  quality  to  the  articles  in  his  paper. 
Many  of  Taylor's  fellows  in  apprenticeship  have 
filled  places  of  use  and  of  renown.  They  are 
editors  and  jurists,  and  one  has  been  chief 
justice  of  the  State. 

As  a  lad  of  seventeen  Taylor  was  six  feet  in 
height,  straight,  athletic,  full  of  life,  with  dark 
brown  eyes  and  hair.  He  was  full  of  magnetism 
to  his  finger  tips.  Mesmerism  reached  West 
Chester  in  his  adolescence  and  he  was  singu 
larly  successful  in  his  experiments  with  it.  This 
personal  fascination  never  entirely  left  him. 
A  subtle  influence  went  forth  from  him  that  at 
tracted  men  to  him,  and  stole  their  hearts  away. 
Upon  the  Nile  the  boatmen  followed  him  with 
their  eyes,  and  were  prompt  to  render  him,  with 
out  thought  of  reward,  any  service  in  their  way. 
He  tells  in  "  Views  Afoot  "  the  pretty  story  of 
a  child  who  broke  from  its  playmates  and  their 
game  to  run  across  the  street  and  catch  his  hand 
and  look  up  with  a  trusting  smile  into  his  hand 
some  face. 

While  in  West  Chester  he  read  Herder,  in 
German,  with  Miss  Evans  ;  and  resumed  his 
studies  in  Spanish  with  Mrs.  Evans  and  with 


30  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

Canizares,  a  Spaniard.  With*  William  Butler, 
now  a  judge  of  the  United  States  District  Court 
and  Morris  Ingram,  a  former  school-fellow  at 
Unionville,  he  organized  a  society  called  "  The 
Thespians,"  and  they  gave  recitations  and  dra 
matic  performances  in  the  Odd  Fellows  Hall 
over  the  "  Record  "  office. 

Some  verses  that  he  had  contributed  to  the 
"  Saturday  Evening  Post,"  particularly  the 
lines  "  To  the  Brandywine,"  brought  him  to 
the  notice  of  Rufus  W.  Griswold,  then  editor 
of  "  Graham's  Magazine "  and  who  had  just 
published  his  "  Poets  and  Poetry  of  America." 
Griswold  was  a  power  in  those  days,  and  his  favor 
was  anxiously  solicited  by  young  writers,  and  his 
countenance  coveted  by  older  ones.  His  circle 
of  acquaintance  included  all  the  literati  of  the 
country,  and  his  arrogant  air  made  his  little 
literature  seem  stately  and  imposing.  "  Ruffian 
Griswold  "  those  called  him  who  had  felt  the 
weight  of  his  disapproval,  but  to  many  who  in 
evident  sincerity  solicited  his  aid  he  extended  a 
helping  hand.  "  Graham's  Magazine  "  was  made 
by  George  R.  Graham  in  1841  by  a  combination 
of  Atkinson's  "  Casket  "  and  Burton's  "  Gen 
tleman's  Magazine."  Its  "  canonized  bead- 
roll  "  contained  the  names  of  nearly  all  the 
well-known  writers  of  the  country.  Cooper 
and  Poe,  Longfellow  and  Hawthorne  were  con- 


EARLY  LIFE.  31 

stant  contributors ;  and  the  names  of  "  Fanny 
Forester,"  Alice  and  Phoebe  Gary,  "  Grace 
Greenwood,"  Frances  S.  Osgood,  N.  P.  Willis, 
James  K.  Paulding,  Park  Benjamin,  Charles 
Fenno  Hoffman,  Alfred  B.  Street,  and  Albert 
Pike  figured  frequently  upon  its  covers.  Wash 
ington  Irving  alone,  wholly  occupied  with  the 
"  Knickerbocker  Magazine,"  had  no  connection 
with  "  Graham's." 

Into  this  choice  companionship  of  literary 
names  Taylor  was  admitted  through  the  kindly 
interest  of  Griswold,  and,  encouraged  by  the 
Philadelphia  autocrat,  he  began  to  cherish 
"hopes  of  occupying  at  some  future  day  a 
respectable  station  among  our  country's  poets." 
Griswold  strongly  advised  him  to  publish  a 
poetic  romance  that  he  had  been  engaged  upon 
for  a  considerable  time,  together  with  other  of 
his  poems,  in  a  volume.  Mistrusting  his  own 
inclination  and  judgment,  Taylor,  with  his  cus 
tomary  candor,  submitted  his  verses  to  a  few 
trusted  friends ;  and  as  no  serious  attempt  was 
made  to  dissuade  him  from  an  enterprise  which, 
however,  did  not  promise  any  particular  gain  or 
benefit,  he  began  to  solicit  subscriptions,  and 
early  in  February,  1844,  appeared  "  Ximena ; 
|  or  |  The  Battle  of  the  Sierra  Morena,  |  and  | 
other  Poems,  |  By  James  Bayard  Taylor.  |  '  I 
am  a  Youthful  Traveler  in  the  Way.'  Henry 


32  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Kirk  White  |  Philadelphia :  |  Herman  Hooker, 
178  Chesnut  Street  |  MDCCCXLIV.  | 

It  was  dedicated  to  Rufus  W.  Griswold,  "As 
an  expression  of  gratitude  for  the  kind  encour 
agement  he  has  shown  the  author."  Bryant  had 
published  "  The  Embargo  "  when  fourteen  years 
of  age,  and  a  few  other  American  poets  had 
lisped  in  numbers  more  or  less  musical,  but  the 
firmament  was  not  then  crowded  with  literary 
lights,  and  it  was  a  thing  more  unusual  than 
now  for  a  lad  of  nineteen  to  send  forth  a  volume 
of  verse.  It  brought  him  some  pleasant  letters 
and  a  little  money,  and  gave  him  in  popular 
repute  a  place  among  the  poets. 

Never  did  youth  entertain  fairer  visions  of 
fame  than  were  the  possession  at  this  time  of 
this  West  Chester  lad  ;  never  did  man  have 
higher  and  more  abstracted  ambition  ;  never  did 
a  generous  and  gentle  nature  pant  more  eagerly 
for  recognition  and  for  sympathy.  Upon  the 
fly-leaf  of  a  copy  of  "  Ximena  "  presented  to 
Lowell,  as  of  one  presented  to  Longfellow,  are 
the  words,  "  From  his  stranger-friend,  J.  Bayard 
Taylor."  The  letter  that  accompanied  the  pre 
sentation  to  Lowell  read  :  "Will  you  receive  the 
offering  of  a  bard  unknown  to  you,  as  a  small 
return  for  the  spiritual  enjoyment  you  have 
given  him  ?  I  am  but  a  youth,  and  have  a  life 
of  toil  before  me,  and  whenever  I  weary  of  my 


EAELY  LIFE.  33 

burden,  the  voice  of  the  Poet,  prophet-like,  bids 
me  4  suffer  and  be  strong.'  I  dare  not  as  yet 
call  myself  a  Brother-Bard  ;  but  I  send  you  the 
first  breathings  of  my  soul,  with  the  ardent 
hope  they  will  find  a  response  in  your  own." 

It  was  a  boy's  letter,  and  the  book  was  a  boy's 
book.  Too  early  publication  is  always  a  vain 
regret.  Taylor  in  after  years  repudiated  the 
fifteen  poems  that  constituted  the  little  volume, 
and  wished  them  forgotten.  There  are  constant 
recollections  in  them  of  the  author's  reading ; 
and  to  the  faint  lyrical  faculty  that  he  already 
displayed  is  superadded  a  very  evident  affection 
for  the  manner  of  Scott,  and  Byron,  and  Moore, 
and  Mrs.  Hemans.  It  is  interesting  to  note  the 
boy  Taylor  looking  about  him  for  the  subjects 
of  his  song.  He  does  not  sigh  his  breath  in 
foreign  clouds,  nor  celebrate  the  skylark  or  the 
bulbul.  He  knows  his  native  grounds  and 
loves  them,  and  he  writes  poems  upon  Pennsyl 
vania  and  Catskill  and  indites  verses  "  To  the 
Brandywine."  1 

1  It  has  hitherto  passed  without  notice  that  the  earliest  pub 
lication  by  T.  Buchanan  Bead  was  a  novel  whose  persons  and 
places  are  all  to  be  found  between  Philadelphia  and  Lancaster. 
It  is  Paul  Redding:  A  Tale  of  the  Brandywine,  printed  in 
Boston  in  1845.  Read  ripples  into  verse  amid  his  narrative 
when  he  praises  — 

"  The  bright,  the  laughing  Brandywine 
That  dallies  with  ita  hundred  mills." 


34  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  Ximena "  was  published  not  all  so  much 
for  fame,  as  for  another  close  intent  which 
Taylor  meant  to  reach  unto.  His  reading  had 
"clothed  foreign  countries  with  a  splendid  at 
mosphere  of  poetry  and  art."  The  longing  for 
travel  in  those  realms  of  gold  began  with  his 
acquaintance  at  ten  years  with  Willis's  "  Pen- 
cillings  by  the  Way."  The  longing  became 
a  steadfast  resolve  with  the  reading  of  "  Hype 
rion."  The  doubts  created  by  those  to  whom 
he  applied  for  information,  and  who  named  pro 
hibitory  sums  as  the  inevitable  expenses  of  the 
journey,  were  dissipated  by  Howitt's  "  Rural 
Life  in  Germany,"  which  confirmed  him  in  his 
belief  that  the  journey  might  be  made  very 
cheaply  on  foot. 

Still  it  seemed  impossible*  to  procure  the 
money  that  was  necessary.  The  project  ap 
peared  to  his  friends  and  neighbors  wild  and 
visionary.  He  realized  and  resented  the  repres 
sion  of  all  that  was  dearest  to  him  so  inev 
itable  in  the  community  which  surrounded  him. 
When  he  reflected  upon  the  impossibility  of  sat 
isfying  his  ambition  at  home,  he  said  that  he 
felt  as  if  he  were  sitting  in  an  exhausted  re 
ceiver  while  the  air  which  should  nourish  his 
spiritual  life  could  only  be  found  in  distant 
lands.  While  he  was  negotiating  for  the  publi 
cation  of  "  Ximena  "  he  frequently  walked  the 


EARLY  LIFE.  35 

thirty  miles  from  Kennett  to  Philadelphia,  and 
in  these  lonely  walks  he  was  occupied  in  fancy 
with  the  strong  conflict  between  his  desire  to 
travel  abroad  into  the  world,  and  the  affection 
and  sense  of  duty  to  which  his  friends  and 
family  appealed  to  hold  him  still  within  the 
narrow  life  of  home.  Concerning  one  of  these 
occasions  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Phillips  :  "  I 
sat  down  by  the  roadside,  for  it  was  then  dark, 
and  looking  to  heaven  through  my  blinding 
tears,  fervently  prayed  for  strength  of  spirit  to 
sustain  me  in  my  conflict  with  the  world.  And 
the  struggle  in  my  breast  ceased,  and  I  felt 
that  the  path  which  was  to  lead  me  onward  and 
upward  was  that  which  was  the  desire  of  my 
soul."  His  first  step  was  to  buy  the  remainder 
of  his  apprenticeship  time  from  Mr.  Evans. 
Two  weeks  before  the  day  fixed  upon  for  leav 
ing  home  he  had  secured  no  employment  and 
did  not  possess  a  dollar  toward  his  outfit.  He 
then  walked  to  Philadelphia,  and  spent  two  or 
three  days  calling  upon  the  principal  editors 
and  publishers  of  the  city.  "  At  last "  (he 
wrote  in  the  introductory  chapter  to  "  Views 
Afoot"),  "when  I  was  about  to  return  home, 
not  in  despair,  but  in  a  state  of  wonder  as  to 
where  my  funds  would  come  from  (for  I  felt 
certain  they  would  come),  Mr.  Patterson,  at 
that  time  publisher  of  the  4  Saturday  Evening 


36  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Post,'  offered  me  fifty  dollars  in  advance  for 
twelve  letters,  with  the  promise  of  continuing 
the  engagement,  if  the  letters  should  be  satis 
factory.  The  Hon.  Joseph  R.  Chandler,  editor 
of  the  4  United  States  Gazette,'  then  made  me 
a  similar  offer."  Mr.  Graham  paid  with  his 
wonted  liberality  for  some  manuscript  poems, 
and  the  delighted  boy  returned  in  triumph  to 
Kennett  with  a  fund  of  one  hundred  and  forty 
dollars.  He  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  pro 
ceedings  necessary  to  procure  a  passport,  and 
supposed  he  was  obliged  to  report  himself  at 
the  national  capital.  Accordingly  he  and  his 
cousin,  Franklin  Taylor,  set  forth  for  Wash 
ington,  a  distance  of  one  hundred  miles.  They 
walked  to  Port  Deposit,  on  the  Susquehanna 
River,  and  proceeded  by  boat  to  Baltimore. 

In  the  night,  finding  every  tavern  closed  and 
silent,  they  walked  the  remaining  forty  miles 
of  their  journey,  tormented  by  raging  thirst, 
"  forced  to  drink  from  ditches  and  standing 
pools,  closing  our  teeth  to  keep  out  the  tadpoles 
and  water-beetles."  Dusty,  footsore,  and  faint, 
they  trudged  along  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  seek 
ing  the  boarding-house  where  the  member  of 
congress  from  their  district  lodged.  Taylor 
always  declared  that  he  never  recalled  that 
night  walk  without  "  a  strange  reflected  sense 
of  pain."  The  young  travelers  were  presented 


EARLY  LIFE.  37 

to  Mr.  Calhoun,  and  Taylor  felt  honored  in 
taking  the  hand  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  and 
hearing  a  few  words  of  encouragement  from  his 
lips.  Bayard  was  the  youngest  of  "  the  three 
wise  men  of  Kennett  "  who  were  now  about  to 
set  forth  for  distant  lands.  The  others  were 
his  cousin,  Franklin  Taylor,  and  Barclay  Pen- 
nock.  The  former  had  sought  out  the  men  of 
ripest  scholarship  and  strongest  personality  in 
New  England  to  study  under,  and  was  now  go 
ing  to  complete  his  education  in  Germany.  He 
became  a  successful  teacher  and  eloquent  lec 
turer,  and  president  of  the  Philadelphia  Cen 
tral  High  School.  Pennock  is  remembered  for 
his  Scandinavian  studies,  and  his  translation  of 
Keyser's  "  Religion  of  the  Northmen." 

Armed  at  last  with  money  and  with  pass 
ports,  and  with  light  hand-baggage,  —  "  French 
and  German  grammars,  a  portfolio,  and  a  few 
shirts," -  — the  three  friends,  at  the  end  of  June, 
1844,  went  to  New  York  by  the  cheapest  route, 
to  sail  for  England.  Bayard  Taylor  called 
upon  N.  P.  Willis,  who  received  him  with  gentle 
courtesy  and  gave  him  a  letter  to  his  brother, 
Richard  Storrs  Willis,  who  was  studying  music 
in  Frankfurt,  Germany.  This  interview,  from 
which  Bayard  Taylor  departed  with  a  heart 
full  of  gratitude  and  a  mind  filled  with  enthusi 
asm  for  his  new  acquaintance,  was  an  import- 


BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

ant  one  in  Taylor's  life,  though  he  did  not  yet 
know  it.  Willis's  hand  was  to  give  the  genius 
of  Taylor  to  the  literary  world.  As  Taylor  ex 
pressed  a  desire  to  make  further  engagements 
with  publishers,  Willis  gave  him  a  general  note 
of  introduction  —  a  roving  commission  —  which 
was  calculated  to  serve  his  turn  and  to  further 
his  interests  with  any  of  the  leading  journals  ; 
but  he  was  unsuccessful  in  making  more  than 
a  conditional  engagement  with  Horace  Greeley 
to  furnish  sketches  of  German  life  and  society 
for  the  "  New  York  Tribune."  In  1844  it  was 
a  considerably  greater  undertaking  to  cross  the 
ocean  than  in  these  times,  when  we  have  devel 
oped  a  class  of  highly  civilized  beings  who  keep 
hopping  back  and  forth  across  the  Atlantic. 

In  the  second  cabin  of  the  Oxford,  "  flanked 
with  bales  of  cotton  and  fitted  with  temporary 
berths  of  rough  planks,"  for  which  accommo 
dation  and  the  privilege  of  finding  their  own 
bedding  and  provision  the  travelers  paid  ten 
dollars  apiece,  they  left  New  York  on  the  1st 
of  July,  bound  for  Liverpool.  On  the  26th, 
at  sunrise,  the  Old  World  dawned  upon  their 
view.  Taylor  gazed  with  keen  excitement  upon 
the  scenes  his  earliest  dreams  had  dwelt  upon. 
His  enthusiasm  he  cast  in  incoherent  words 
into  his  diary  and  his  letters.  Soon  he  would 
enjoy  the  loveliness  that  is  in  English  scenery, 


EABLY  LIFE.  39 

and  the  sweetness  that  is  in  English  civiliza 
tion.  This  first  trip  to  Europe  meant  so  much 
for  him  that  it  demands  recognition  in  how 
ever  brief  a  biography.  For  him  it  was  no 
heedless  scamper  across  a  continent,  nor  guide 
book  pilgrimage  to  cathedrals  and  castles.  It 
was  no  midsummer  holiday  minted  in  a  golden 
mood.  It  was  his  university  education.  For 
two  years  he  wandered,  "  a  pensive  but  un 
wearied  pilgrim,"  through  the  lands  of  Europe, 
augmenting  his  experience  and  his  knowledge 
in  art  galleries  and  in  streets,  and  reveling  in 
what  of  culture  was  accessible  to  him  with  an 
intensity  of  delight  of  which  no  thorny  point  of 
penury  and  sheer  distress  could  rob  him. 

Instead  of  going  directly  to  London  the  trav 
elers  made  an  excursion  to  the  Giants'  Cause 
way,  and  then  went  from  Port  Rush  to  Green- 
ock  for  a  run  through  Scotland.  They  climbed 
Ben  Lomond  and  were  present  at  Ayr  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Burns  festival,  and  saw  the  sons 
of  Burns,  Professor  Wilson,  Alison  the  histo 
rian,  and  Mrs.  S.  C.  Hall.  In  London  Taylor 
at  first  found  lodgings  in  Whitechapel  —  bare 
rooms  and  questionable  beds  —  for  a  shilling 
a  day,  but  soon  shifted  his  quarters  to  the  Aid- 
gate  coffee-house,  "  where  the  terms  were  equally 
cheap  and  the  society  a  very  little  better." 
After  a  week  of  sightseeing,  in  which  he  made 


40  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

not  a  single  acquaintance,  he  left  London,  and 
crossed  from  Dover  to  Ostend.  He  journeyed 
by  Treckshuyt  in  Belgium,  boated  up  the 
Rhine,  and  walked  through  the  Odenwald. 

Frank  Taylor  meant  to  study  at  Heidelberg, 
and  when  he  registered  there  for  the  winter  sem 
ester  Bayard  sought  Richard  Storrs  Willis  in 
Frankfurt  and  there  abode  six  months  in  snug 
domestic  German  quarters.  It  was  a  fortunate 
time  for  both  cousins,  for  the  exodus  of  the  lib 
erals  from  Gottingen  had  reinforced  Heidelberg 
with  Gervinus  and  Schlosser,  and  Bayard,  by 
his  residence  in  a  plain  burgher  family  where 
English  was  an  unknown  tongue,  made  the  best 
possible  beginning  in  the  study  of  the  language 
in  which  his  most  notable  intellectual  triumphs 
were  to  be  gained.  Before  the  half  year  was 
over  he  was  not  only  fluent  in  conversation  but 
had  written  rhyming  German  verse.  Living 
was  cheap.  Taylor  paid  for  his  furnished  rooms, 
meals,  light,  and  fuel,  thirty-three  cents  a  day. 
Richard  Storrs  Willis  has  written  pleasantly  of 
Taylor's  sojourn  with  him.  In  the  "  Detroit 
Free  Press,"  May  22, 1887,  he  says  :  "  Christmas 
and  Thanksgiving,  —  these  of  course  had  to  be 
celebrated  by  the  American  colony.  Thanksgiv 
ing  meant  a  turkey.  Where  to  find  one  ?  It 
was  mortifying  to  make  it  clear  to  our  host  what 
we  meant  by  a  turkey,  —  rare  in  Germany  as 
sweet  corn,  cranberries,  and  the  oyster. 


EARLY  LIFE.  41 

*'  As  the  most  enterprising  among  us,  Bayard 
was  deputed  to  forage  among  the  markets  for 
one.  Concealment  was  vain  and  he  found  it. 
What  did  he  ever  seriously  undertake  and  not 
accomplish?  When  placed  upon  the  table,  our 
German  friends  greatly  wondered  at  the  un 
wonted  spectacle. 

"  Christmas  meant  a  gift  to  our  host  and  host 
ess.  We  decided  on  a  carpet  for  the  best  com 
pany  room.  Of  course  we  had  no  carpets  on  the 
floor  generally ;  such  luxury  was  confined  to  the 
rich,  and  even  then  the  carpet  was  mainly  a  rug. 
Indeed,  after  becoming  wonted  to  the  cleanly 
expanse  of  a  floor,  a  carpet  seemed  a  dusty  and 
untidy  thing.  We  hesitated  to  dim  the  white 
ness  and  scrupulous  neatness  of  the  floor  with  it. 
But  we  knew  it  would  please  our  good  German 
friends,  and  so,  after  wrestling  with  the  difficulty 
of  choice,  innocent  of  all  housekeeping  as  we 
were,  and  just  then  convinced  that  a  lady  comes 
in  very  well  sometimes  (our  landlady  was  out  of 
the  question,  —  it  was  a  Christmas  secret),  we 
took  the  risk  of  one.  Late  at  night,  when  all 
Germans  were  asleep  and  only  Americans  awake, 
we  smuggled  the  carpet  into  the  room,  and  like 
a  band  of  conspirators  softly  displaced  the  f urni* 
ture  and  surprised  the  floor  with  its  new  adorn 
ment. 

"Christmas  morning,  after   some   quite  new 


42  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

ejaculations  on  the  part  of  our  host  and  hostess 
(by  which  we  grammatically  profited),  we  suc 
ceeded  in  overcoming  the  reluctance  to  step  on 
it  which  they  at  first  manifested." 

Loyalty  to  home  was  one  of  Taylor's  strongest 
traits.  The  recollection  of  the  dear  homestead 
at  Kennett  interposed  shadows  of  melancholy 
amid  the  joy  and  novelty  of  the  life  that  he  was 
living  in  the  presence  of  strange  beauty  and  rev 
erend  history. 

He  was  entirely  ignorant  of  the  ways  of  the 
world.  Innocent  of  transgression,  true  to  the 
cardinal  points  of  heaven  and  home,  the  un 
tainted  virtue  of  his  years  had  not  yet  dived  into 
the  world's  deceit.  By  establishing  himself  in 
Frankfurt  in  a  simple  family  where  the  warm 
German  heart  beat  with  affectionate  hospitality 
he  but  exchanged  home  for  home.  In  Kennett 
his  sensibilities  had  been  repressed,  his  sentimen 
tal  ardor  checked  and  rebuked.  In  Frankfurt 
he  experienced  the  generous  glow  of  gentle  sym 
pathies  whose  effusion,  unrestrained  by  conven 
tions,  mellowed  his  character  and  liberated  his 
thought.  He  felt  one  by  one  the  straitening 
fetters  of  old  prejudice  fall  from  him,  and  saw, 
wide  extended  before  him,  the  horizon  of  that 
untraveled  world  whose  margin  fades  forever 
and  forever  as  we  move.  With  fond  regret,  when 
he  turned  away  from  Frankfurt,  he  dwelt  upon 


EARLY  LIFE.  43 

the  scenes  now  so  familiar  and  so  dear,  upon  the 
old  bridge  with  its  view  up  the  Main  to  the  far 
mountains  of  the  Odenwald,  and  upon  the  re 
membered  song  of  the  nightingales  heard  from 
the  lovely  boulevard  ;  but  Italy  was  beyond  the 
mountains,  and  all  the  latent  love  of  the  beau 
tiful  in  his  nature  impelled  him  toward  those 
"  happy  lands  "  of  which  Bordello  speaks, 

"  That  have  luxurious  names 
For  loose  fertility  ;  a  footfall  there 
Suffices  to  upturn  to  the  warm  air 
Half  germinating1  spices  ;  mere  decay 
Produces  richer  life  ;  and  day  by  day 
New  pollen  on  the  lily-petal  grows, 
And  still  more  labyrinthine  buds  the  rose." 

It  was  a  long,  roundabout  way  through  Ger 
many  that  he  took  before  descending  into  Italy. 
With  a  passport,  properly  viseed,  a  knapsack 
weighing  fifteen  pounds,  and  a  cane  from  the 
Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky,  he  began  a  lonely 
walk  through  Northern  Germany.  He  entered 
the  Hartz,  ascended  the  Brocken  in  a  storm,  and 
visited  Leipsic  and  Dresden.  A  brief  sojourn 
in  Prague  was  followed  by  a  journey  through 
Bohemia  and  Moravia,  arriving  at  last  at  Vienna. 
After  a  few  other  expeditions  and  much  scram 
bling  among  the  Alps,  he  reached  Italy  by  the 
passage  of  the  St.  Gothard. 

In  Florence  he  made  his  longest  stay.  His 
vague  and  sensuous  delight  found  permanent  ex- 


44  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

pression  many  years  afterward  in  u  The  Picture 
of  St.  John." 

"  On,  on,  through  broadening  vale  and  brightening  eon 
I  walked,  and  hoary  in  their  old  repose 
The  olives  twinkled  :  many  a  terrace  rose, 
With  marbles  crowned  and  jasmine  overrun, 
And  orchards  where  the  ivory  silk-worm  spun. 
On  leafy  palms  outspread,  its  pulpy  fruit 
The  fig-tree  held ;  and  last,  the  charm  to  close, 
A  dark-eyed  shepherd  piped  a  reedy  flute. 

"  My  heart  beat  loud  :  I  walked  as  in  a  dream 
Where  simplest  actions,  touched  with  marvel,  seem 
Enchanted  yet  familiar :  for  I  knew 
The  orchards,  terraces,  and  breathing  flowers, 
The  tree  from  Adam's  garden,  and  the  blue 
Sweet  sky  behind  the  light  aerial  towers  ; 
And  that  young  faun  that  piped,  had  piped  before,  — 
I  knew  my  home :  the  exile  now  was  o'er." 

Taylor  was  too  modest  to  seek  the  acquaint 
ance  of  men  of  note.  He  had  that  pearl  of  vir 
tues,  —  the  capacity  for  devout  veneration,  the 
sentiment 

"  That  hallows  in  the  core 
Of  human  hearts  the  memory  of  a,  wall 
Where  dwelt  the  wise  and  wondrous,"  — 

and  his  instant  reverence,  dearer  to  him  than  his 
own  praise,  made  him  shy  of  intruding  upon  the 
men  whose  names  he  saw  shining  in  the  world  of 
art  and  letters  which  it  was  his  dearest  ambi 
tion  to  enter.  He  did  seek  out  Mendelssohn  and 
Freiligrath,  and  enjoyed  conversation  with  them. 


EAELY  LIFE.  45 

Iii  Florence  he  was  welcomed  by  Hiram  Powers, 
in  whose  house  he  became  acquainted  with  Rich 
ard  Adams  Locke,  the  author  of  the  "  Moon 
Hoax."  Some  verses  that  Taylor  wrote  upon 
Powers'  statue  of  Eve  so  pleased  the  sculptor 
that  he  procured  the  author  a  letter  of  introduc 
tion  from  Mrs.  Trollope  to  John  Murray,  her 
publisher.  After  borrowing  fifty  dollars  from 
Mr.  Powers,  Taylor  and  his  friends  found  they 
had  just  ninety  dollars  for  the  journey  to  Rome 
and  thence  to  Paris.  Taylor  had  become  accus 
tomed  to  privation.  He  had  known  what  it  was 
to  subsist  upon  four  crazie  (six  cents)  a  day, 
and  to  live  upon  bread,  figs,  and  roasted  chest 
nuts.  On  the  12th  of  January,  1846,  he  took 
deck-passage  on  a  Neapolitan  boat  from  Civita 
Vecchia  for  Marseilles.  Sick  and  miserable, 
lying  on  the  hard  deck  with  a  knapsack  under 
his  head,  wet  to  the  skin,  with  teeth  chattering 
and  limbs  numb  and  damp,  Taylor  experienced 
seasickness  in  all  its  horrors.  Fifteen  francs 
remained  upon  leaving  Marseilles  to  carry  him 
to  Paris.  Circumstances  now  demanded  the 
greatest  economy.  "  The  incessant  storms  of 
winter  and  the  worn-out  state  of  our  shoes, 
which  were  no  longer  proof  against  water  or 
mud,  prolonged  our  journey  considerably,  so 
that  by  starting  before  dawn  and  walking  until 
dark,  we  were  only  able  to  make  thirty  miles 


46  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

a  day."  The  travelers  reached  Lyons  with 
clothes  like  sponges,  boots  entirely  worn  out, 
and  bodies  suffering  from  nine  days'  exposure 
to  the  winter  storms  in  a  tramp  of  two  hun 
dred  and  forty  miles.  They  dispatched  a  letter 
to  Paris  requesting  that  a  part  of  the  remit 
tance  expected  there  should  be  forwarded  to 
Lyons,  and  they  engaged  lodgings  in  a  common- 
looking  inn  near  the  river.  For  five  weary, 
wretched  days  they  lay  in  pawn,  prisoners  in 
Lyons.  On  the  sixth  day  a  letter  came  —  but 
the  postage  was  fourteen  sous,  and  neither  Tay 
lor  nor  his  companion  had  a  centime.  By  an 
ingenious  manoeuvre  one  of  them  succeeded  in 
borrowing  a  franc  from  the  hostess.  It  required 
a  good  deal  of  courage  to  break  the  seal,  but 
then  suspense  was  over,  and  the  remittance  was 
at  hand.  Forthwith  the  travelers  purchased  two 
delicate  cheese-cakes,  and  in  the  afternoon  new 
shoes  at  a  small  shop  in  the  suburbs.  "I  gave 
the  cobbler  my  old  pair,  which  he  instantly  flung 
into  the  street,  with  the  exclamation  :  4  Us  ne 
valent  pas  un  sous,  Monsieur ! ' "  ("  Views 
Afoot,"  p.  456.) 

From  Paris  Taylor  went  on  to  Dieppe  and  to 
London.  "  I  stood  upon  London  Bridge,  in  the 
raw  mist  and  the  falling  twilight,  with  a  franc 
and  a  half  in  my  pocket,  and  deliberated  what 
I  should  d.o.  Weak  from  seasickness,  hungry, 


EARLY  LIFE.  47 

chilled,  and  without  a  single  acquaintance  in  the 
great  city,  my  situation  was  about  as  hopeless 
as  it  is  possible  to  conceive."  ("  At  Home  and 
Abroad,"  p.  35.)  He  sought  again  the  chop- 
house  opposite  the  Aldgate  Churchyard.  His 
room  contained  a  miserable  bed,  an  old  spinet 
with  every  key  broken  or  out  of  tune,  a  cracked 
looking-glass,  and  two  chairs.  "  The  window 
commanded  a  cheerful  view  of  the  churchyard." 
Starvation  or  downright  vagrancy  seemed  in 
store  for  him,  his  last  penny  had  gone  for  bread, 
when  Mr.  Putnam  came  to  his  rescue.  Every 
avenue  of  employment  in  London  seemed  closed 
to  him  by  reason  of  the  rules  of  the  English 
trade,  but  Mr.  Putnam  and  Mr.  Stevens  set  him 
upon  making  out  catalogues  and  packing  books, 
and  so  for  six  weeks  he  earned  the  scanty  sums 
that  were  necessary  for  his  meagre  living. 

He  had  brought  with  him  poems  which,  with 
the  ignorance  and  enthusiasm  of  untried  youth, 
he  believed  to  be  of  such  a  quality  as  to  com 
mand  the  attention  of  publishers  and  to  create 
a  sensation  in  the  world  of  letters.  He  was 
invited  by  John  G.  Lockhart  to  a  breakfast 
at  which  he  met  John  Murray  and  Bernard 
Barton.  Conversation  with  the  editor  of  the 
"Quarterly  Review,"  and  a  glimpse  into  the 
old  culture  and  criticism  of  England,  made  the 
poor  little  poems  in  the  depths  of  Taylor's  port- 


48  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

folio,  which  a  short  time  before  had  seemed  so 
perfect,  look  shabby  and  strange  ;  but  it  is  the 
best  evidence  of  his  sound  intellectual  health 
that  the  discovery  brought  him  no  disillusion 
ment  and  despair,  but  only,  after  a  night  of 
bitterness  and  tears,  the  brave  resolve  to  make 
his  work  acceptable  to  the  highest  taste  and 
judgment. 

On  the  1st  of  June,  1846,  the  travelers  ar 
rived  in  New  York  bay  and  went  forward  at 
once  to  Philadelphia  and  Wilmington.  "  Now 
came  the  realization  of  a  plan  we  had  talked 
over  a  hundred  times  to  keep  up  our  spirits 
when  the  weather  was  gloomy,  or  the  journey 
lay  through  some  waste  of  barren  country.  Our 
knapsacks,  which  had  been  laid  down  in  Paris, 
were  again  taken  up,  slouched  German  hats  sub 
stituted  for  our  modern  black  cylinders,  belt 
and  blouse  donned,  and  the  pilgrim  staff  grasped 
for  the  rest  of  our  journey.  But  it  was  part  of 
our  plan  that  we  should  not  reach  home  till  after 
nightfall ;  we  could  not  think  of  seeing  any  one 
we  knew  before  those  who  were  nearest  to  us ; 
and  so  it  was  necessary  to  wait  a  few  hours 
before  starting. 

"  The  time  came  ;  that  walk  of  three  or  four 
hours  seemed  longer  than  many  a  day's  tramp 
of  thirty  miles,  but  every  step  of  the  way  was 
familiar  ground.  The  people  we  met  stared, 


EARLY  LIFE.  49 

laughed,  or  looked  suspiciously  after  us,  but  we 
were  quite  insensible  to  any  observation.  We 
only  counted  the  fields,  measured  the  distance 
from  hill  to  hill,  and  watched  the  gradual  de 
cline  of  the  broad  bright  sun.  It  went  down  at 
last,  and  our  homes  were  not  far  off.  When 
the  twilight  grew  deeper,  we  parted,  each  one 
of  us  thinking  what  an  experience  lay  between 
that  moment  and  the  next  morning.  I  took  to 
the  fields,  plunged  into  a  sea  of  dewy  clover, 
and  made  for  a  light  which  began  to  glimmer  as 
it  grew  darker.  When  I  reached  it,  and  looked 
with  the  most  painful  excitement  through  the 
window  on  the  unsuspecting  group  within,  there 
was  not  one  face  missing."  1 

Bayard  Taylor  returned  from  his  eventful 
journey  with  rich  eyes  and  poor  hands.  His 
mind  had  been  enlarged  but  his  character  was 
unchanged.  "  He  was  born,"  said  Berthold 
Auerbach  in  his  funeral  address,  "  in  the  New 
World,  but  ripened  in  the  Old."  He  had  de 
parted  a  youth,  he  returned  a  man.  It  was  on 
a  day  of  warm  sun,  of  blue  sky  and  bluer  sea, 
that,  walking  by  the  Italian  shore  of  the  Medi 
terranean,  Bayard  Taylor  celebrated  in  thought 
and  thankfulness  his  twenty-first  birthday.  He 
had  endured  much  and  suffered  much,  but  his 
gains  were  beyond  his  present  audit. 
1  Views  Afoot,  p.  494. 


50  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

"  Who  ne'er  his  bread  with  sorrow  ate, 

Who  ne'er  the  lonely  midnight  hours 
With  weeping  on  his  bed  hath  sate, 
He  knows  ye  not,  ye  heavenly  powers." 

When  sauntering  through  the  streets  of  Euro 
pean  towns  he  had  frequently  attracted  much 
attention,  with  his  student  cap  and  his  year's 
growth  of  hair.  And  now  he  found  that  at 
home  a  lively  interest  had  been  awakened  in 
him  by  the  publication  of  his  letters  in  the 
"  Tribune,"  u  Saturday  Evening  Post,"  and 
"United  States  Gazette."  He  was  advised  to 
collect  his  letters  and  publish  them  in  a  book, 
and  for  that  purpose  he  went  to  New  York, 
where  he  negotiated  with  Wiley  &  Putnam,  who 
agreed  to  pay  him  one  hundred  dollars  for  every 
thousand  copies  sold. 

Willis  suggested  the  title  "Views  Afoot," 
and  generously  wrote  for  the  book  an  introduc 
tion,  "  giving,"  as  Taylor  in  a  later  edition  said, 
"  the  buoyancy  of  his  name  to  a  craft  which 
might  not  otherwise  have  ridden  so  fortunately 
the  capricious  sea  of  literary  success." 

The  poetic  fervor  of  the  book  and  its  re 
strained  vigor  of  style,  the  tenacity  of  purpose, 
the  struggle,  the  courage,  and  the  pluck  that  it 
revealed,  fascinated  the  public,  and  sufficiently 
account  for  its  great  popularity.  It  appeared 
under  the  title  :  "  Views  Afoot ;  or,  Europe  seen 


•EARLY  LIFE.  51 

with  Knapsack  and  Staff.  By  J.  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  with  a  preface  by  N.  P.  Willis.  New  York : 
Wiley  &  Putnam,  1846."  It  was  dedicated  to 
his  cousin,  Frank  Taylor,  who  had  shared  the 
toils  and  enjoyments  of  the  pilgrimage.  The 
manuscript  Bayard  had  submitted  to  Hannah 
Darlington,  one  of  his  earliest  and  most  sympa 
thetic  friends,  and  her  "  critical  judgment,"  he 
declared  in  the  copy  of  the  book  that  he  pre 
sented  to  her,  "  assisted  in  polishing  and  prepar- 
ing  '*  it.  ^ 

Six  editions  were  sold  in  the  first  year.  A 
chapter  of  practical  hints  to  pedestrians  was 
added  to  the  eighth  edition.  The  twentieth 
edition  appeared  in  1855,  and  it  was  marked 
by  a  thorough  revision  and  a  new  introductory 
chapter. 

Longfellow  wrote  of  it,  under  date  of  Christ 
mas  Day,  1846:  "  The  last  chapter  fills  me 
with  great  wonder.  How  could  you  accomplish 
so  much,  with  such  slight  help  and  appliances  ? 
It  shows  a  strength  of  will  —  the  central  fire  of  - 
all  great  deeds  and  words  —  that  must  lead  you 
far  in  whatever  you  undertake." 

He  received  kind  letters  of  appreciation  from 
Mary  Howitt,  Eliza  Leslie,  Mrs.  Hale,  and  Ber 
nard  Barton  ;  and  Friedrich  Ger stacker  wrote 
from  Germany  to  interest  him  in  one  of  the  in 
terminable  American  novels  that  he  was  then 


52  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

writing,  —  perhaps  "  Die  Flusspiraten  des  Mis 
sissippi." 

Horace  Greeley  recalling  his  early  employ 
ment  of  Taylor  wrote  :  "  I  say,  then,  most  ear 
nestly,  to  every  youth  anxious  to  go  abroad, 
traverse  Europe,  and  pay  his  way  by  writing 
for  some  journal,  '  Tarry  at  Jericho,  till  your 
beard  be  grown.'  I  never  knew  but  one  of 
your  class  —  Bayard  Taylor  —  who  achieved  a 
real  success  in  thus  traveling ;  and  he  left  home 
a  good  type-setter,  with  some  knowledge  of  mod 
ern  languages  ;  so  that  he  stopped  and  worked 
at  his  trade  whenever  his  funds  ran  short ;  yet, 
even  thus,  he  did  not  wholly  pay  his  way  dur 
ing  the  two  years  he  devoted  to  his  delightful 
4  Views  Afoot.'  I  know  it,  for  I  employed  and 
paid  him  all  that  his  letters  were  fairly  worth, 
though  not  nearly  so  much  as  his  letters  now 
righteously  command.  He  practiced  a  syste 
matic  and  careful  economy;  yet  he  went  away 
with  money,  and  returned  with  the  clothes  on 
his  back,  and  (I  judge)  very  little  more.  My 
young  friend,  if  you  think  yourself  better  quali 
fied  than  he  was,  go  ahead,  and  '  do '  Europe ! 
but  don't  ask  me  to  further  your  scheme  ;  for  I 
hold  that  you  may  far  better  stay  at  home,  ap 
ply  yourself  to  some  useful  branch  of  produc 
tive  industry,  help  pay  our  national  debt,  and 
accumulate  a  little  independence  whereon,  by 


EAELY  LIFE.  53 

and  by,  to  travel  (if  you  choose)  as  a  gentle 
man,  and  not  with  but  a  sheet  of  paper  between 
you  and  starvation."  l 

Almost  at  the  same  time  with  the  approval  of 
his  prose,  came  the  first  praise  of  his  poetry. 
In  the  winter  of  1846-47  he  published  anony 
mously  "  The  Norseman's  Ride,"  in  the  "  Dem 
ocratic  Review."  Whittier  read  it,  and  copied 
it  into  the  "  National  Era,"  prefacing  it  with 
commendation.  Taylor  wrote  to  him  from 
Phoenixville  under  date  of  September  16,  1847  : 

"  I  know  you  will  understand  the  feeling  which 
prompts  me,  though  a  stranger,  to  address  you, 
and  pardon  any  liberties  I  may  have  taken  in 
so  doing.  I  was  surprised  and  delighted  a  few 
weeks  ago  to  see  in  the  '  National  Era,'  in  con 
nection  with  a  notice  of  the  old  northern  myth 
ology,  a  poem  of  mine,  i  The  Norseman's  Ride,' 
which  was  published  last  winter  in  the  4  Demo 
cratic  Review.'  I  am  an  enthusiastic  admirer  of 
the  stirring  Scandinavian  sagas,  some  of  which 
Tegner  has  immortalized  in  his  4  Frithiof ; '  and 
it  was  under  the  full  influence  of  the  spirit  in 
spired  by  them  that  the  poem  was  written.  I 
was  possessed  by  the  subject  and  fancied  I  had 
given  it  fitting  expression,  but  the  friends  to 
whom  I  showed  it  did  not  admire  it,  and  I  re- 
1  Horace  Greeley,  Recollections  of  a  Busy  Life,  p.  326. 


54  .         BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

luctantly  concluded  that  my  heated  fancies  had 
led  my  judgment  astray,  and  made  up  my  mind 
to  forget  it.  Judge,  then,  how  grateful  and  en 
couraging  was  your  generous  commendation.  I 
thank  you  sincerely  and  from  my  heart  for  the 
confidence  your  words  have  given  me.  One  day, 
I  hope,  I  shall  be  able  to  take  your  hand,  and 
tell  you  what  happiness  it  is  to  be  understood  by 
one  whom  the  world  calls  by  the  sacred  name  of 
poet.  With  every  wish  for  your  happiness  and 
prosperity,  I  am,  with  sincere  respect  and  esteem, 
your  friend,  J.  BAYARD  TAYLOR."1 

Three  years  later  Whittier  reviewed  "  Eldo 
rado  "  in  the  "  National  Era,"  and  suggested  to 
Taylor  that  he  would  find  a  promising  field  of 
travel  "  in  the  vast  territory  of  New  Mexico,  — 
the  valley  of  the  Del  Norte,  with  its  old  Castil- 
ian  and  Aztec  monuments  and  associations ;  the 
Great  Salt  Lake,  and  the  unexplored  regions  of 
the  great  valley  of  Colorado,  between  the  moun 
tain  ranges  of  the  Sierra  Madre  and  the  Sierra 
Nevada."  Taylor  replied  :  u  If  it  was  not  time 
that  I  should  stop  from  roving  and  build  up  a 
home  for  myself,  I  would  go  there  next  year." 

The  friendship  so  knit  grew  in  love  and  loy 
alty.  Taylor's  visits  to  Amesbury  Whittier  has 
referred  to  in  "  The  Last  Walk  in  Autumn." 

1  Pickard's  Whittier,  vol.  i.  pp.  325,  326. 


EARLY  LIFE.  55 

"  Here,  too,  of  answering  love  secure 

Have  I  not  welcomed  to  my  hearth 

The  gentle  pilgrim  Troubadour, 

Whose  songs  have  girdled  half  the  earth ; 

Whose  pages,  like  the  magic  mat 

Whereon  the  Eastern  lover  sat, 
Have  borne  me  over  Rhineland's  purple  vines 
And  Nubia's  tawny  sands,  and  Phrygia's  mountain  pines." 

In  "  The  Tent  on  the  Beach  "  Whittier  brings 
together  three  congenial  companions  within 
sound  of  the  bells  of  Newburyport,  and  listens 
to  the  stories  that  they  tell.  Whittier  and 
James  T.  Fields  are  two  of  the  company  ;  the 
other,  — 

"  One  whose  Arab  face  was  tanned 
By  tropic  sun  and  boreal  frost, 
So  traveled  there  was  scarce  a  land 

Or  people  left  him  to  exhaust, 
In  idling  mood  had  from  him  hurled 
The  poor  squeezed  orange  of  the  world, 
And  in  the  tent-shade,  as  beneath  a  palm, 
Smoked,  cross-legged  like  a  Turk,  in  Oriental  calm. 

"  His  memory  round  the  ransacked  earth 

On  Ariel's  girdle  slid  at  ease ; 
And,  instant,  to  the  valley's  girth 

Of  mountains,  spice  isles  of  the  seas, 
Faith  flowered  in  minster  stones,  Art's  guess 
At  truth  and  beauty,  found  access  ; 
Yet  loved  the  while,  that  free  cosmopolite, 
Old  friends,  old  ways,  and  kept  his  boyhood's  dreams  insight." 

In  this  "  free  cosmopolite,"  merrily  chat 
ting  with  his  friends,  and  improvising  song 


-ME 


56  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

and  story,  there  must  be  instant  recognition 
of  the  far -traveled  Pennsylvanian  poet,  who 
in  his  turn  gave  Whittier  verse  for  verse  by 
dedicating  to  him  "  Lars :  A  Pastoral  of  Nor 
way." 

"  Through  many  years  my  heart  goes  back, 
Through  checkered  years  of  loss  and  gain, 
To  that  fair  landmark  on  its  track, 
When  first,  beside  the  Merrimack, 

Upon  thy  cottage  roof  I  heard  the  autumn  rain." 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  "  Views  Afoot " 
Taylor  visited  Boston,  and  was  feasted  and 
praised  by  Whipple  and  Fields,  and  presented 
by  them  to  Longfellow.  He  blushed  at  the 
general  chorus  of  compliment  and  congratula 
tion,  and  wept  for  sheer  excitement  and  for  joy. 
And  now  he  looked  about  him  for  some  occupa 
tion  that  would  yield  him  a  fixed  income.  He 
weighed  the  chances  in  country  journalism,  and, 
reflecting  that  the  neighboring  counties,  Chester 
and  Montgomery,  supported  seven  political  pa 
pers,  believed  that  there  was  a  field  for  a  periodi 
cal  devoted  to  literature  and  news.  Dr.  I.  A. 
Pennypacker  recommended  Phoenixville  as  the 
place  of  publication.  A  paper  already  located 
there,  the  "  Phoenixville  Gazette,"  was  bought 
by  Taylor  and  his  friend  Frederick  E.  Foster, 
and,  its  name  being  changed,  was  issued  De 
cember  29,  1846,  as  the  "Phoenixville  Pioneer." 


EARLY  LIFE.  57 

Taylor  wrote  most  of  the  editorials  and  all  of 
the  book  reviews. 

Phoenixville  was  a  manufacturing  place,  re 
sounding  with  the  roar  of  forges,  and  brilliant  at 
night  with  columns  of  red  flame  rising  from  the 
mills  and  furnaces.  The  chief  laboring  class 
had  no  interest  in  the  aims  of  the  "  Pioneer." 
The  farmers  with  rustic  conservatism  regarded 
the  town  with  dislike  and  the  paper  with  dis 
favor.  Taylor  worked  faithfully  at  his  task, 
sped  the  nights  with  poetry  and  translation, 
resumed  his  habit  of  pedestrianism,  rowed  in 
the  afternoons  upon  French  Creek,  and  joined 
spiritedly  in  the  diversions  of  the  town's  small 
society  of  educated  persons.  That  he  viewed 
the  slow  progress  of  the  journal  with  ill-concealed 
discontent  was  due  neither  to  ambition  nor 
chagrin,  but  to  deep  disappointment  at  his  in 
ability  to  compass  what  was  then  the  one  dar 
ling  purpose  of  his  life.  He  had  not  breathed 
it  in  his  letters,  he  had  scarcely  confided  it  to 
his  diary,  he  had  not  whispered  to  a  friend  the 
pure  affection  for  one  who  was  the  purest  and 
gentlest  of  women,  that  had  grown  with  his 
growth  and  had  become  the  precious  ideal  of  his 
life.  His  mother  alone  possessed  the  secret. 
When  he  went  abroad  in  1844  the  sorest  pang 
was  parting  from  the  one  who  held  his  heart  in 
keeping ;  and  the  image  of  that  sweet  face  lived 


58  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

with  him  in  his  wanderings.  Thirteen  years 
before  his  memorable  voyage,  when  he  was  a 
child  at  the  dame's  school,  Mary  Agnew,  a  little 
neighbor  and  schoolmate  whom  he  loved,  whis 
pered  to  the  teacher,  "  May  I  sit  beside  Bay 
ard  ?  "  The  same  dear  companion  was  in  his 
mind  when  he  gave  with  mingled  fear  and  pride 
his  first  volume  of  poems  to  the  press. 

Upon  his  return  to  Kennett,  his  engagement 
became  known.  It  is  a  rarely  beautiful  person 
ality  that  is  disclosed  in  the  letters  of  Mary 
Agnew  as  published  in  the  "Life  and  Letters 
of  Bayard  Taylor."  Grace  Greenwood  once  de 
scribed  her  as  "  a  dark-eyed  young  girl  with  the 
rose  yet  unblighted  on  cheek  and  lip,  with  soft, 
brown,  wavy  hair,  which,  when  blown  by  the 
wind,  looked  like  the  hair  often  given  to  angels 
by  the  old  masters,  producing  a  sort  of  halo-like 
effect  about  a  lovely  head."  It  was  to  provide 
a  home  for  her  that  Bayard  was  straining  every 
energy,  but  the  present  still  seemed  hopeless 
and  the  future  was  veiled  in  impenetrable  clouds. 

A  brief  run  to  the  Catskills  in  August  gave 
him  another  teasing  glimpse  of  metropolitan  life 
in  New  York.  After  his  return  to  Phoenixville 
he  wrote  to  Willis  for  information  about  New 
York  journalism,  and  received  from  him  the 
advice  to  negotiate  by  correspondence  with  cer 
tain  editors  of  the  city  before  abandoning  his 


EARLY  LIFE.  59 

business  in  the  country.  In  reply  to  the  letters 
that  he  addressed  to  the  men  whom  he  best 
knew,  Greeley  wrote  dissuading  him  from  the 
venture ;  Griswold,  with  his  usual  sanguine 
temper,  had  no  hesitation  in  bidding  him  come 
at  once ;  Bryant  knew  of  no  vacancy ;  Charles 
Fenno  Hoffman  liked  his  idea  of  " 4  coming  up 
to  the  capital,'  as  did  the  worthies  of  literature 
in  Johnson's  time,"  and  offered  him  an  engage 
ment  for  November  and  December  at  five  dollars 
a  week  upon  the  miscellaneous  department  of 
the  "  Literary  World." 

Bayard  Taylor  now  took  the  second  decisive 
step  of  his  life.  He  had  wasted  a  year  in  un 
profitable  toil.  He  had  incurred  what  was  to 
him  a  serious  burden  of  debt.  He  now  bought 
his  release  from  the  partnership  in  the  "  Pioneer," 
and  arrived  in  New  York,  December  17,  1847. 
He  was  engaged  by  Hoffman  at  five  dollars  a 
week,  and  he  had  an  offer  from  Miss  Green  to 
teach  belles-lettres  at  her  school,  three  or  four 
hours  a  week,  for  four  dollars  more. 

He  was  in  the  metropolis,  and  he  was  on  the 
threshold  of  his  fame. 


CHAPTER  II. 

REPORTER   AND   TRAVELER. 

1848-1853. 

BAYARD  TAYLOR'S  intellectual  development 
was  never  steadily  progressive.  What  he  lacked 
in  originality  he  supplied  by  eager  industry. 
To  get  from  him  the  best  of  which  he  was 
capable  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  feel  strong 
external  stimulus.  Throngs  of  men  and  urgent 
competition  summoned  into  activity  all  his  en 
ergies  and  capabilities.  He  adapted  himself  to 
all  circumstances  and  surroundings;  he  bore 
apparently  without  fatigue  the  labors  that  bowed 
and  crushed  other  men  of  less  heroic  strength. 
When  a  definite  task  was  given  him  to  discharge 
and  rival  intellects  raced  with  him  in  the  per 
formance  of  it,  his  surprising  alertness  of  mind, 
unfailing  physical  health,  and  astonishing  indus 
try  of  hand  assured  him  a  victory  that  was 
always  secure  and  sometimes  brilliant. 

His  career,  therefore,  resolves  itself  into  clearly 
marked  epochs  corresponding  to  certain  influ 
ences  entering  accidentally  or  otherwise  into 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  61 

his  life.  The  year  at  Phoenixville  had  been 
full  of  restless  pain;  Pegasus  was  restive  in 
rustic  harness.  The  removal  to  New  York,  by  % 
introducing  Taylor  to  the  best  and  busiest  liter 
ary  life  of  the  country,  afforded  scope  for  his 
ambition,  and  gave  direction  to  his  vague  and- 
wandering  aspirations.  The  time,  too,  was 
propitious.  Philadelphia  had  entirely  lost  her 
old  supremacy  as  the  capital  city  of  American 
letters. 

The  satirist  Duganne,  who  was  for  a  time 
associated  with  the  publication  of  the  "  Iron 
Man,"  a  paper  which,  after  Taylor's  "  Pioneer  " 
had  ceased,  continued  a  short  and  uneventful 
existence  in  Phoenixville  during  1849  and  1850, 
said  what  every  writer  knew  to  be  the  fact,  — 

"  Yet  true  it  is,  and  that  't  is  true,  't  is  pity, 
The  pen  is  penury  in  Penn's  great  city."  1 

Nothing  is  more  patent  to  the  patient  reader 
of  the  Philadelphia  periodicals  from  1820  to 
1840  than  the  swift  progress  of  New  York  be 
yond  the  Pennsylvanian  city.  With  the  passing 
of  Brown  and  Dennie,  and  the  literary  clique 
that  had  supported  the  "Port-Folio,"  there 
arose  in  New  York  a  new  group  of  writers,  hav 
ing  few  features  in  common,  but  conveniently 
labeled  "  the  Knickerbocker  school."  A.  J.  H. 

1  Parnassus  in  Pillory,  a  satire,  by  Motley  Manners,  Esq. 
New  York,  1851. 


62  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

Duganne  in  "  Parnassus  in  Pillory  "  lampooned 
the  American  authors,  and  in  his  eagerness  to 
castigate  Willis  referred  ironically  to  his  kindly 
care  of  Bayard  Taylor :  — 

"  What  time  Nat  Willis,  in  the'  daily  papers, 
Published  receipts  of  shoemakers  and  drapers : 
What  time,  in  sooth,  his  '  Mirror '  flashed  its  rays, 
Like  Barnum's  '  drummond,'  on  the  Broadway  gaze  ; l 
When  lisping  misses,  fresh  from  seminaries, 
Worshiped  '  mi-boy  '  and  '  brigadier '  2  as  lares  ; 
Then  Bayard  Taylor  —  prote'ge'  of  Natty, 
Dixon-like  3  walked  into  the  '  literati ' ! 
And  first  to  proper  use  his  genius  put, 
Like  ballet-girls,  by  showing  '  Views  Afoot.'  " 

New  York  had  already  assumed  a  cosmopolitan 
and  commercial  character,  and  there  was  about 
it  a  lively  and  extravagant  tone  which  contrasted 
strikingly  with  the  seriousness  of  Boston  and 
the  provincialism  of  Philadelphia.  That  Taylor 
was  delighted  with  the  swifter  currents  of  met 
ropolitan  life  is  evident  from  his  letters  to  Ken- 
nett  Square.  When  he  meditated  a  removal 
to  Philadelphia  to  work  for  Mr.  Graham,  he 
wrote  to  Mary  Agnew  (May  11,  1846) :  "  How 
shall  I  leave  this  mighty  New  York  ?  I  cannot 
think  it  will  be  a  final  departure.  Something 

1  The  office  of  the  Mirror  was  near  Barnum's  Museum,  and 
the  Drummond  light. 

2  Willis  and  Morris  signed  their  articles  "Mi-boy,"   and 
"Brigadier." 

8  George  Washington  Dixon,  "  literary-musical-pedestrian." 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  63 

tells  me  that  a  great  part  of  my  destiny  shall  be 
worked  out  here.  It  is  almost  the  only  place  in 
this  country  where  the  mind  can  grow  without 
restriction.  Philadelphia  is  merely  an  immense 
provincial  town ;  here  is  the  metropolis  of  a  con 
tinent  ! " 

The  opinion  formed  upon  the  first  encounter 
with  the  literary  workers  of  New  York,  Taylor 
never  found  cause  to  change.  Many  years  later 
he  wrote  to  Prof.  James  Morgan  Hart,  to  whom 
he  was  indebted  for  judicious  criticism  of  his 
translation  of  "  Faust,"  "  I  wish  you  could  have 
settled  in  New  York  rather  than  in  Boston. 
The  intellectual  tone  is  higher  in  the  latter 
place,  but  freer  in  the  former.  Besides  New 
York  is  in  the  process  of  evolution  in  a  literary 
sense,  which  Boston  does  not  seem  to  be:  in 
other  words  there  is  rather  more  of  a  future  in 
our  noisy  metropolis." 

At  the  moment  when  Taylor  "  walked  into 
the  'literati,'"  Bryant,  Halleck,  and  Willis 
were  the  most  prominent  men  of  letters ;  and  all 
of  them  were  native  New  Englanders.  Halleck 
had  counted  the  Muse's  children  in  New  York 
many  years  before,  and  found  that 

1 '  Our  fourteen  wards 
Contain  some  thirty-seven  bards." 

Washington  Irving  had  freshly  returned  from 
Spain  and  taken  up  his  residence  at  Sunnyside, 


64  BAYAKD   TAYLOR. 

the  "pretty  little  cabin,"  as  Thackeray  called 
it,  at  Tarrytown;  Taylor  met  him,  and  found 
him  "  a  glorious  old  man,  full  of  kind,  genial 
feelings,  and  most  delightful  in  his  conversa 
tion." 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  was  living  in  the  old 
hall  on  Lake  Otsego  with  three  years  of  author 
ship  still  before  him.  James  Kirke  Paulding 
had  practically  closed  his  literary  career,  —  al 
though  "  The  Puritan  and  His  Daughter,"  the 
last  of  his  novels,  was  still  unpublished,  —  and 
had  retired  to  "  Placentia,"  his  beautiful  home 
upon  the  Hudson.  General  George  P.  Morris 
was  occupying  his  summer  home,  "  Undercliff," 
opposite  to  West  Point;  and  Willis,  who  had 
not  yet  acquired  the  estate  upon  the  Hudson 
near  Newburgh  which,  with  his  customary  feli 
city,  he  named  "  Idlewild,"  was  the  best-dressed 
figure  upon  Broadway. 

Charles  Fenno  Hoffman,  who  was  the  first 
editor  of  the  "Knickerbocker  Magazine,"  and 
who  wrote  •"  Monterey,"  a  favorite  poem  with 
General  Grant,  and  the  still  popular  song, 
"  Sparkling  and  Bright,"  had  already  begun  to 
show  slight  symptoms  of  the  malady  which  is 
sued  in  hopeless  insanity.  Hoffman's  boarding- 
house,  Murray  Street,  near  Broadway,  became 
Bayard  Taylor's  first  residence  in  New  York, 
and  Taylor  was  fascinated  by  the  glitter  of  his 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  65 

companion's  eccentric  fancy,  and  counted  him 
self  happy  in  his  acquaintance.  The  year  be 
fore  Taylor  appeared  in  New  York,  Verplanck 
had  published  his  edition  of  Shakespeare,  with 
notes,  and  the  Duyckinck  brothers  had  begun 
"  The  Literary  World."  It  was  the  fashion  to 
compare  our  writers  with  the  English  favorites 
of  the  hour:  Hoffman  was  our  Knickerbocker 
Moore,  Halleck  was  supposed  to  suggest  Camp 
bell.  Imitation  was  the  life  and  breath  of  the 
Knickerbocker  literature,  and  it  is  perhaps  not 
unfair  to  conclude,  with  J.  K.  Dennett  ("  Na 
tion,"  December  5,  1867),  that  "  it  is  true  to 
say  that  the  Knickerbocker  school  was  composed 
of  authors  whom  we  all  remember  as  forgot 
ten."  Taylor  was  quickly  made  free  of  the  social 
life  of  New  York  through  the  courtesy  of  his 
mentor,  Willis,  and  his  house-mate,  Hoffman. 
On  New  Year's  night,  1848,  he  attended  a  con 
versazione  at  Anne  Lynch's  (Mrs.  Botta)  whose 
parlors  once  a  week  for  nearly  half  a  century 
were  hospitably  open  to  the  guilds  of  art  and 
letters.  Hoffman  introduced  him  to  the  society 
that  gathered  around  Mrs.  Seba  Smith,  the 
wife  of  "Major  Jack  Downing,"  in  Brooklyn. 
Much  of  sentimentalism  and  affectation,  of 
course,  there  was  in  some  of  the  pseudo-liter 
ary  gatherings.  In  "  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes  " 
Taylor  satirizes  the  receptions  of  those  f  antastics 


66  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

who  had  "  only  got  the  tune  of  the  time  and 
outward  habit  of  encounter ; "  no  doubt  there 
were  many  unconventional  "  at  homes "  like 
Adeliza  Choate's  Friday  nights  when  similar 
"  fond  and  winnowed  opinions  "  were  idly  dis 
cussed.  Lest  the  sarcasm  in  the  description 
might  be  interpreted  wrongly,  Taylor  wrote,  — 
with  Miss  Lynch's  conversaziones  in  his  mind, 
—  "The  Friday  evening  receptions  of  Mrs. 
Yorkton  —  I  beg  pardon,  Adeliza  Choate  — 
continued  to  be  given,  but  I  did  not  often  attend 
them.  I  had  been  fortunate  enough  to  obtain 
entrance  to  the  literary  soirees  of  another  lady 
whom  I  will  not  name,  but  whose  tact,  true 
refinement  of  character,  and  admirable  culture 
drew  around  her  all  that  was  best  in  letters  and 
in  the  arts.  In  her  salons  I  saw  the  possessors 
of  honored  and  illustrious  names ;  I  heard  books 
and  pictures  discussed  with  the  calm  discrimi 
nation  of  intelligent  criticism  ;  the  petty  vanities 
and  jealousies  I  had  hitherto  encountered  might 
still  exist,  but  they  had  no  voice,  and  I  soon 
perceived  the  difference  between  those  who  as 
pire  and  those  who  achieve.  Art,  I  saw,  has  its 
own  peculiar  microcosm,  —  its  born  nobles,  its 
plodding,  conscientious,  respectable  middle  class, 
and  its  clamorous,  fighting  rabble."  ("John 
Godfrey's  Fortunes,"  p.  321.) 

Occasional  social  diversion  and  the  writing 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  67 

of  poetical  valentines  and  humorous  acrostics 
did  not  interfere  with  the  rapid  dispatch  of 
thorough  work.  Greeley  was  so  impressed  by 
Taylor's  energy  and  enthusiasm  that  before  the 
end  of  January,  1848,  he  offered  him  a  situa 
tion  on  the  "Tribune."  Oliver  Johnson  had 
resigned,  and  the  miscellaneous  and  literary  de 
partment  was  without  a  chief.  To  this  post 
Taylor  was  appointed,  at  a  salary  of  twelve  dol 
lars  a  week,  at  a  time  when  the  town  was  full 
of  five-dollars-a-week  men,  and  when  it  was 
necessary  to  work  for  several  papers  in  order 
to  earn  enough  to  keep  life  afoot.  "  I  seem 
to  have  turned  over  a  new  leaf  of  life,"  wrote 
Taylor  to  Mary  Agnew,  "and  I  shall  write  a 
better  story  upon  it  than  the  blotted  pages  I 
have  left  behind.'* 

In  "  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes  "  Taylor  refers 
with  pleasant  humor  to  his  first  experiences  in 
city  journalism,  and  to  his  rapture  and  grati 
tude  at  what  he  calls  a  "  branch  of  Pactolus 
bursting  at  my  feet  to  bear  me  onward  to  all 
golden  possibilities."  His  work  and  manner 
attracted  almost  instant  attention,  and  the 
stranger  who  had  been  introduced  to  New  York 
by  N.  P.  Willis  in  January,  received  in  the  first 
week  of  March  invitations  to  four  additional 
situations.  Mrs.  Kirkland  was  going  to  Eu 
rope  and  would  have  Taylor  edit  "  The  Union 


68  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Magazine  "  and  "  Christian  Inquirer  "  until  her 
return  ;  George  R.  Graham,  always  quick  to  dis 
cern  new  talent,  engaged  him  to  write  occasional 
book  reviews ;  and  Henry  Peterson,  author  of 
"  Pemberton,"  asked  him  to  become  the  New 
York  correspondent  of  the  "  Saturday  Evening 
Post."  In  July  one  of  the  owners  of  "  Graham's 
Magazine  "  waited  upon  Taylor  and  offered  him 
the  permanent  editorship  of  that  periodical  at  a 
thousand  dollars  a  year,  but  this  prize  he  was 
not  destined  to  possess ;  the  affairs  of  "  Graham's 
Magazine,"  which  had  been  disordered  finan 
cially,  were  adjusted,  and  Bayard  Taylor  contin 
ued  to  hold  a  merely  nominal  editorship,  and  to 
furnish  regular  contributions  without  leaving 
New  York.  So  quickly  did  his  reputation  kindle 
before  him  that  in  December,  1848,  James  T. 
Fields  wrote  to  him,  "  You  have  a  capital  repu 
tation  now  in  poetry,  and  must  be  careful  of 
your  muse.  A  good  beginning  is  everything. 
I  stand  at  a  desk  where  I  can  gauge  a  man's 
depth  in  the  public  reading  estimation,  and  I 
know  no  youngster  who  stands  dearer  than  J. 
B.  T.,  doffing  the  J."  The  last  words  of  the 
letter  contained  sensible  advice.  The  "  J."  was 
the  Mordecai  at  the  gate  of  a  good  and  poetic 
name. 

Bayard  Taylor's  excitement  during  this  busy 
year  was  intense.     He  reveled  in  the  delight  of 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  69 

the  intellect.  To  no  kind  of  newspaper  duty 
was  he  averse ;  book  notices,  editorials,  domes 
tic  news,  foreign  intelligence,  reporter's  notes, 
fell  profusely  from  his  untiring  and  always  care 
ful  hand.  He  wrote  fifteen  hours  a  day ;  and 
in  his  rooms  at  an  aerial  elevation,  "  o'erlooking 
the  city's  tiles/'  he  wrote  late  into  the  night,  or 
ran  a  swift  race  before  the  dawn,  "  resting  his 
soul  with  poetry  after  the  prosaic  labors  of  the 
day."  The  vivid  sensations  created  by  the  ro 
mance  of  the  West  as  it  appeared  in  the  daily 
news  from  the  gold-fields,  stimulated  him  to  the 
making  of  the  "  Calif ornian  Ballads,"  —  poems 
that  are  spangled  with  such  beauty  as  only 
youthful  passion  can  bestow. 

The  friendships  that  are  formed  in  the  ideal 
izing  time  of  generous  youth  are  the  most  potent 
and  most  permanent.  To  the  romantic  attach 
ments  formed  by  poets  in  their  youth  we  often 
owe  the  direction  and  the  profit  of  their  lives. 
Such  a  friendship  bound  together  the  lives  of 
Bayard  Taylor  and  Richard  Henry  Stoddard. 
Separated  during  the  week  by  sharp  necessity, 
Taylor  performing  his  round  of  journalistic 
duty,  and  Stoddard  leaving  many  "  weary  prints 
on  the  wet  sands  of  a  hated  foundry,"  they  met 
on  Saturday  nights  to  enjoy  what  Taylor  called 

"  The  sunshine  of  the  Gods, 
The  hour  of  perfect  Song." 


70  BATAED   TAYLOR. 

To  one  another  they  dedicated  their  books. 
When  Taylor  wrote  "  Ariel  in  the  Cloven  Pine- 
Tree,"  Stoddard  companioned  it  with  "  Caliban, 
the  Witch's  Whelp,"  and  when  a  great  sorrow 
fell  upon  Stoddard  and  his  noble  wife,  it  was 
Bayard  Taylor  who  spoke  the  gentlest  sympa 
thy,  and  sweetly  recalled 

u  The  finer  soul,  that  unto  ours 

A  subtle  perfume  seemed  to  be, 
Like  incense  blown  from  April  flowers 
Beside  the  scarred  and  stormy  tree."  1 

"  I  have  before  me  now,"  writes  Mr.  Stod 
dard,  "  a  vision  of  him  [Taylor]  in  his  young 
manhood,  —  tall,  erect,  active  looking,  and 
manly,  with  an  aquiline  nose,  bright,  loving 
eyes,  and  the  dark,  ringleted  hair  with  which 
we  endow,  in  ideal,  the  head  of  poets.  There 
was  a  kindness  and  a  courtesy  in  his  greeting 
which  went  straight  to  my  heart,  and  assured 
me  that  I  had  found  a  friend." 

Stoddard  followed  Keats,  and  Taylor  studied 
Shelley.  The  revolutionary  spirits  of  both  the 
English  poets  lived  in  the  quick  pulses  of  their 
worshipers.  Their  sensuous  beauty,  their  sub 
tle  harmonies,  and  their  lofty  imagination  tor 
tured  the  young  imitators  with  exquisite  delight 
and  with  despair.  An  "  Ode  to  Shelley  "  was 
the  best  poem,  with  the  possible  exception  of 

1  Euphorion* 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  71 

"The   Continents,"  —  praised    by   Poe,  — that 
Taylor  composed  in  1848. 

When  time  had  tried  and  proved  the  friend 
ship  that  had  ennobled  their  youth,  Taylor  ad 
dressed  to  Mr.  Stoddard  the  sonnet :  — 

TO  R.  H.  S. 

The  years  go  by,  old  Friend !     Each,  as  it  fleets, 

Moves  to  a  farther,  fairer  realm,  the  time 

When  first  we  twain  the  pleasant  land  of  Rhyme 

Discovered,  choosing  side  by  side  our  seats 

Below  our  separate  Gods  :  in  midnight  streets 

And  haunted  attics  flattered  by  the  chime 

Of  silver  words,  and,  fed  by  faith  sublime, 

I  Shelley's  mantle  wore,  you  that  of  Keats,  — 

Dear  dreams,  that  marked  the  Muse's  childhood  then, 

Nor  now  to  be  disowned  !     The  years  go  by ; 

The  clear-eyed  Goddess  flatters  us  no  more  ; 

And  yet,  I  think,  in  soberer  aims  of  men, 

And  Song's  severer  service,  you  and  I 

Are  nearer,  dearer,  faithfuller  than  before. 

Another  poet  was,  in  this  year  (1848),  admit 
ted  to  wear  with  these  the  muse's  livery.  One 
of  Taylor's  earliest  literary  duties  had  been  to 
review  "  The  Lesson  of  Life,  and  other  Poems," 
and  to  abuse  the  book.  Six  weeks  after  he  had 
obeyed  the  order  he  became  acquainted  with 
the  author,  explained  the  review,  and  apologized 
for  the  fault.  Then  and  there  began  a  close 
and  unfaltering  friendship  between  Bayard  Tay 
lor  and  George  Henry  Boker.  A  "  Sonnet  to 
G.  H.  B."  expresses  Taylor's  appreciation  of 


72  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Boker's   genius,   as   well   as   his   love   for    the 
man:  — 

"  If  that  my  hand,  like  yours,  dear  George,  were  skilled 
To  win  from  Wordsworth's  scanty  plot  of  ground 
A  stirring  harvest,  such  as  you  have  found, 
Where  strength  and  grace,  fraternally  fulfilled, 
As  in  those  sheaves  whose  rustling  glories  gild 
The  hills  of  August,  folded  are,  and  bound  ; 
So  would  I  draw  my  loving  tillage  round 
Its  borders,  bid  the  gentlest  rains  be  spilled, 
The  goldenest  suns  its  happy  growth  compel, 
And  bind  for  you  the  ripe,  redundant  grain  : 
But,  ah,  you  stand  amid  your  songful  sheaves, 
So  rich,  this  weed-born  flower  you  might  disdain, 
Save  that  of  me  its  growth  and  color  tell, 
And  of  my  love  some  perfume  haunt  its  leaves  !  " 

The  fourth  member  of  the  "tuneful  quire," 
and  always  a  welcome  visitor  when  fortune 
brought  him  to  New  York,  was  T.  Buchanan 
Read.  Both  his  arts,  painting  and  poetry,  were 
made  to  express  the  love  and  friendship  he  bore 
his  comrades.  He  painted  a  picture,  in  the  sen 
timental  style  prevailing  in  the  "  forties,"  of 
Taylor,  a  slender  youth,  of  Shelley's  face  and 
form,  equipped  with  palmer's  hat  and  blouse, 
and  a  shepherd's  crook  doing  duty  for  the  nonce 
as  an  alpenstock.  In  the  background  hills  peep 
o'er  hills,  and  Alps  on  Alps  arise. 

In  poetry  Read  has  depicted  Taylor  in  the 
character  of  Arthur  in  the  "  Home  Pastorals/' 

Some  years  later  (1855)    Taylor  found   an- 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELEE.  73 

other  friend  in  Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  with 
whom  he  exchanged  poetic  confidences,  and  from 
whom  he  gained  valuable  suggestions  and  learned 
profitable  lessons.  The  best  poem  upon  the 
death  of  Taylor  was  Aldrich's,  and  the  heartiest 
sonnet  that  Taylor  ever  wrote  was  on  Aldrich's 
wedding. 

TO  T.  B.  A.  AND  L.  W. 

Sad  Autumn,  drop  thy  weedy  crown  forlorn, 

Put  off  thy  cloak  of  cloud,  thy  scarf  of  mist, 

And  dress  in  gauzy  gold  and  amethyst 

A  day  benign,  of  sunniest  influence  born, 

As  may  befit  a  Poet's  marriage  morn  ! 

Give  buds  another  dream,  another  tryst 

To  loving  hearts,  and  print  on  lips  unkissed 

Betrothal  kisses,  laughing  Spring  to  scorn ! 

Yet  if  unfriendly  thou,  with  sullen  skies, 

Bleak  rains,  or  moaning  winds,  dost  menace  wrong, 

Here  art  thou  foiled  :  a  bridal  sun  shall  rise 

And  bridal  emblems  unto  these  belong. 

Round  her  the  sunshine  of  her  beauty  lies, 

And  breathes  round  him  the  Spring-time  of  his  song  ! 

Taylor  grew  rapidly  in  knowledge  of  litera 
ture,  and  acquaintance  with  literary  men.  He 
heard  Kichard  Henry  Dana,  who  was  lecturing 
in  New  York,  in  1848,  on  old  English  Litera 
ture,  and  was  thereby  led  to  the  study  of  the 
ballads,  the  dramatists,  and  Wordsworth.  Many 
years  later  (1875)  Taylor  was  sitting  with  Dana 
in  his  home  upon  the  New  England  coast,  and 
asked  him  if  the  spirit  of  Lee  ever  rode  the 


74  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

waters  below  him.  Dana  replied,  "  Twenty 
years  ago,  or  more,  the  body  of  a  horse  was 
washed  ashore  here,  and  it  happened  to  be  a 
white  horse." 

While  Taylor  was  editing  Mrs.  Kirkland's 
"  Union  Magazine,"  Greeley  came  to  him  with  a 
roll  of  manuscript  and  said,  "Now  you  must 
do  something  for  this  young  man.  His  name  is 
Thoreau.  He  lives  in  a  shanty  at  Walden  Pond, 
near  Concord,  on  $37.21  a  year,  and  he  must  be 
encouraged."  The  manuscript  was  "  Katahdin 
[which  Thoreau  spelled  Ktaadn]  and  the  Maine 
Woods."  Taylor  persuaded  the  publisher  to  give 
seventy-five  dollars  for  it,  but  the  good  that  he 
meant  to  do  he  did  not  do,  for  when  the  arti 
cle  appeared  the  shocking  misprint  of  "  scows  " 
for  "  aeons  "  in  a  cosmical  phrase  about  the  de 
velopment  of  man's  nautical  genius  drew  Tho- 
reau's  indignation  down  upon  Taylor's  editorial 
head. 

His  responsibility  for  the  "  Union  Magazine  " 
ceased  in  September,  1848,  and  in  the  following 
month  he  widened  his  circle  of  literary  acquaint 
anceship  by  a  visit  to  New  England  which  gave 
him  an  evening  with  Lowell,  a  night  with  Long 
fellow,  a  ramble  with  Whittier,  and  an  opportu 
nity  to  report  for  the  "  Tribune  "  one  of  Web 
ster's  speeches  delivered  in  the  pine  woods  of 
Abington.  He  discharged  all  the  miscellaneous 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELER.  75 

duties  of  a  newspaper  reporter,  was  with  Willis 
and  Griswold  and  Lewis  Gaylord  Clark  on  the 
first  train  which  crossed  the  Cascade  Ravine 
bridge,  and  reported  with  vividness  and  precision 
the  frenzy  of  the  Astor  Place  riots.  The  terri 
ble  night  of  the  tenth  of  May,  1849,  and  the 
military  encampments  in  the  street  for  the  three 
succeeding  nights  kindled  Taylor's  excitement, 
and  the  accounts  in  the  "  Tribune  "  are  equaled 
only  by  the  circumstantial  report  furnished  by 
Mr.  Bangs  to  the  "  Sunday  Courier."  By  this 
time  Taylor  had  been  advanced  upon  the  "  Trib 
une  "  and  had  become  a  stockholder  in  the  com 
pany. 

It  was  just  at  the  close  of  the  "  roaring  for 
ties  "  that  the  contagion  of  the  "  gold  fever " 
spread  from  California  across  the  Continent. 
Torrents  of  miscellaneous  emigration  set  west 
ward,  and  a  strange  and  extraordinary  life  began 
upon  the  Pacific  slope.  Of  that  wild  life,  "  re 
plete  with  a  certain  Greek  heroism,"  with  its 
lapses  into  semi-savagery,  its  sudden  passions, 
and  its  moral  romances,  we  have  nowhere  a  more 
accurate  or  more  cheerful  picture  than  in  Tay 
lor's  letters  to  the  "  Tribune."  His  fame  as  a 
traveler  and  his  skill  as  a  reporter  were  already 
such  that  he  was  chosen  without  hesitation  as 
the  likeliest  man  to  accomplish  the  perilous  and 
peculiar  task  of  describing  the  situation  in  Cal- 


76  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

ifornia  as  it  really  was.  He  was  exactly  of  the 
mood  and  temper  to  appreciate  what  he  saw  in 
the  young  community.  "  Eager-hearted  as  a  boy 
when  first  he  leaves  his  father's  field,"  he  heard 
his  days  before  him  and  the  tumult  of  his  life. 
Full  of  health  and  hope,  eager  of  heart  and  eye, 
he  was  all  aglow  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
great  scenes  before  him.  Discomforts  and  hin 
drances  were  no  impediment  or  discouragement 
to  him.  Even  of  the  dreadful  journey  across  the 
isthmus,  a  terror  to  emigrants,  he  says,  "  I  feel 
fresh  enough  to  turn  about  and  make  the  trip 
over  again."  He  sailed  for  California  June  28, 
1849,  and  thus  summarizes  his  journey :  "  I  went 
by  way  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  —  the  route 
had  just  been  opened,  —  reached  San  Francisco 
in  August,  and  spent  five  months  in  the  midst  of 
the  rough,  half-savage  life  of  a  new  country.  I 
lived  almost  entirely  in  the  open  air,  sleeping  on 
the  ground  with  my  saddle  for  a  pillow,  and 
sharing  the  hardships  of  the  gold-diggers  with 
out  taking  part  in  their  labors.  Returning 
through  Mexico,  which  I  traversed  diagonally 
from  Mazatlan  to  Vera  Cruz,  I  reached  New 
York  in  March,  1850,  and  resumed  my  duties  as 
editor."  In  the  month  of  his  return  the  record 
of  his  travel  and  its  observations  appeared  under 
the  title,  "  Eldorado,  or  Adventures  in  the  Path 
of  Empire ;  comprising  a  Yoyage  to  California, 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELER.  11 

via  Panama  ;  Life  in  San  Francisco  and  Monte 
rey  ;  Pictures  of  the  Gold  Region,  and  Experi 
ences  of  Mexican  Travel." 

No  more  optimistic  view  of  the  life  in  the 
mining  camps  was  ever  taken.  Crime  and  dis 
tress  made  no  lasting  impression  upon  Taylor. 
"  He  saw  whatever  illustrated  life,  hope,  vigor, 
courage,  prosperity." 1  His  pages  are  strewn  with 
such  favorable  comments  as,  u  There  was  as 
much  security  to  life  and  property  as  in  any 
part  of  the  Union,  and  as  small  a  proportion  of 
crime  ;  "  and  again,  "  The  cosmopolitan  cast  of 
society  in  California,  resulting  from  the  com 
mingling  of  so  many  races  and  the  primitive 
mode  of  life,  gave  a  character  of  good  fellowship 
to  all  its  members." 

The  colossal  features  of  Western  scenery  fas 
cinated  Taylor's  imagination.  He  continually 
digressed  into  descriptions  that  fell  little  short 
of  poetic  rapture.  He  writes :  "  The  broad  oval 
valleys  shaded  by  magnificent  oaks,  and  enclosed 
by  the  lofty  mountains  of  the  Coast  Range,  open 
beyond  each  other  like  a  suite  of  parlor  cham 
bers,  each  charming  more  than  the  last !  "  In  a 
letter  to  Mary  Agnew  he  writes  :  "  It  is  so  deli 
cious  to  fall  asleep  with  the  stars  above  you,  — 
to  feel  their  rays,  the  last  thing  glimmering  in 
your  hazy  consciousness,  and  then  shining  on, 
1  Josiah  Royce,  California,  p.  304. 


78  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

brighter  and  purer,  in  your  dreams !  How  often 
under  the  sycamores  or  evergreen  oaks,  with 
my  head  on  a  dragoon  saddle  and  a  Mexican 
blanket  rolled  warmly  around  me,  have  I  lain  in 
the  silent  wilderness,  and  thought  of  thee  !  One 
night  which  I  will  tell  thee  of  when  we  meet,  I 
slept,  or  rather  watched,  all  alone  on  the  top 
of  a  mountain,  with  vast  plains  glimmering  in 
the  moonlight  below  me  and  the  wolves  howling 
far  down  in  the  ravines.  Was  it  not  a  glorious 
night?  "  That  "  top  of  a  mountain  "  is  so  like 
Taylor.  He  was  fond  of  great  heights  and 
broad  views  ;  and  the  child  who  astonished  the 
servant-girl  with  the  discovery  of  the  Falls  of 
Niagara  from  his  perilous  station  upon  the 
comb  of  the  steep  roof  of  his  Kennett  home,  was 
father  of  the  traveler  who  stood  upon  the  high 
places  of  the  world  and  took  in  the  widest 
sweep  of  vision  in  the  five  continents. 

After  an  experience  with  robbers  in  Mexico, 
he  reached  New  York,  March  9,  1850.  His 
salary  upon  the  "  Tribune  "  was  increased,  and 
he  was  the  owner  of  three  shares  of  its  stock, 
but  the  joy  of  success  and  the  delight  of  ad 
vancement  were  painfully  checked  by  the  appre 
hension  at  Kennett.  Mary  Agnew  became  ill 
in  April  with  inflammation  of  the  lungs,  and 
from  the  effects  of  that  malady  she  never  recov 
ered.  The  wedding,  which  had  been  set  for 


EEPOETEE  AND  TRAVELER.  79 

June  19th,  was  indefinitely  postponed.  Taylor 
performed  his  many  tasks  with  his  customary 
alacrity  and  thoroughness,  but  back  of  all  his 
industry  and  apparent  eagerness  was  a  constant 
agony  of  grief,  and  the  haunting  fear  of  the  loss 
of  the  dearest  object  upon  earth  to  him,  and  the 
fall  at  once  of  all  the  high  built  projects  of  his 
life. 

City  items,  California  news,  Cuban  expedi 
tions,  and  such  bubbles  of  the  moment  did  not 
alone  fill  up  his  worried  days.  Upon  the  invita 
tion  early  in  May  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society 
of  Harvard  College,  he  set  about  composing  a 
poem,  "  The  American  Legend,"  to  be  read  at 
Commencement  in  July.  It  was  received  with 
marked  favor  ;  Emerson  pronounced  it  the  best 
poem  which  had  ever  been  delivered  there.  Tay 
lor  was  elected  an  honorary  member  of  the  $  B  K 
Society.  He  received  the  congratulations  of 
Felton  and  Dana  and  Lowell,  and  with  Lowell 
started  the  next  day  for  Amesbury  to  spend 
a  long  day  with  Whittier.  Invitations  enough 
descended  upon  him  to  furnish  him,  as  he  said, 
"  with  two  weeks'  board."  But  declining  all  in 
ducements  to  stay  he  returned  to  New  York 
on  Sunday  morning,  July  21,  and  the  next  day 
was  summoned  to  Fire  Island  to  the  scene  of 
the  shipwreck  of  the  Elizabeth.  The  American 
Sibyl,  Margaret  Fuller,  with  her  Italian  hus- 


80  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

band,  the  Marquis  d'Ossoli,  and  her  child,  and 
Horace  Sumner  (brother  of  Charles),  after  the 
failure  of  the  Revolution  of  1848  embarked  at 
Leghorn  on  the  merchant  vessel  Elizabeth  for 
New  York.  After  a  succession  of  mishaps  the 
gale  that  arose  as  they  approached  the  Amer 
ican  coast  strengthened  into  a  hurricane  that 
shattered  the  Elizabeth  to  fragments  upon  Fire 
Island.  For  a  week  Taylor  lingered  at  the 
scene  of  the  wreck,  whither  Charles  Sumner 
and  Henry  D.  Thoreau  had  come.  Neither  Mar 
garet  Fuller  nor  her  husband  was  found,  and  the 
manuscript  of  the  "  Revolutions  in  Italy  "  was 
lost  with  them. 

Free  for  a  breathing-space  from  imperative 
engagements,  Taylor  hastened  to  Kennett, 
whence  had  come  alarming  reports  of  Mary 
Agnew's  condition.  In  the  thought  that  a 
change  of  air  and  scene  might  be  beneficial, 
she  was  brought  by  her  mother  and  by  Bayard 
to  Philadelphia  for  medical  consultation,  and 
then  taken  to  West  Point.  It  soon  became  ne 
cessary  to  seek  a  more  quiet  resort,  and  this  was 
found  at  the  farmhouse  of  a  Mrs.  Sutherland 
at  Cornwall,  in  the  highlands  of  the  Hudson, 
a  place  where  the  Willises  were  staying  and 
which  subsequently  became  their  home  and 
known  to  the  world  as  Idlewild.  A  fortnight 
the  ladies  remained  at  this  quiet,  secluded  spot, 


EEPOETER  AND   TRAVELER.  81 

and  then  returned  to  Kennett  warned  by  the 
sudden  and  chill  approach  of  autumn.  Mary 
Agnew  seemed  improved  in  health,  her  cough 
was  less  frequent  and  exhausting,  and  her 
strength  appeared  to  be  returning.  These  were 
the  delusive  symptoms  most  common  in  mala 
dies  like  hers,  but  they  thrilled  Bayard  Taylor 
with  fresh  hope  and  devotion,  and  at  his  desk 
in  New  York,  bowed  over  the  miscellaneous 
tasks  of  the  newspaper  office,  he  worked  with 
a  more  resolute  pen,  and  cast  about  him  upon 
every  side  for  the  means  to  make  possible  and 
prosperous  his  married  life,  which  was  now  his 
one  engrossing  object. 

When  the  Muses  declare  a  competition  there 
is  usually  an  astonishing  revelation  in  the  most 
unlocked  for  places  of  the  numerical  force  of 
their  worshipers.  It  is  much  easier  to  imitate 
emotion  than  is  popularly  supposed.  The  little 
ripple  of  laughter  evoked  by  Mr.  Douglas 
Sladen's  "  One  Hundred  Bards  of  America " 
was  unreasonable,  for  that  cunning  hunter  of 
"  mute  inglorious  Miltons  "  might  have  many 
times  multiplied  his  list,  and  still  have  omitted 
some  easy  versifiers  who  are  covetous  of  the 
poet's  name.  An  enterprising  Western  pub 
lishing  house  has  given  the  biographies  and 
portraits  of  more  than  twelve  hundred  "  poets 
of  America  "  and  by  no  means  exhausted  the 


82  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

singing  choir.  In  the  autumn  of  1850  P.  T. 
Barnum,  the  incomparable  showman,  who  had 
contracted  with  Jenny  Lind  to  sing  for  one  hun 
dred  and  fifty  nights  in  America,  offered  two 
hundred  dollars  as  a  prize  for  an  original  song 
for  the  "Swedish  Nightingale."  "  All  the  ver 
sifiers  in  the  land,"  says  Stoddard,  "set  at 
once  to  work  to  immortalize  themselves  and  to 
better  their  fortunes,  and  as  many  as  six  hun 
dred  confidently  expected  to  do  so."  1  The  com 
mittee  appointed  to  decide  among  the  jarring 
claimants  of  the  prize  selected  two  of  the  contri 
butions,  and,  unable  or  unwilling  to  choose  be 
tween  them,  submitted  both  to  Jenny  Lind,  who 
chose  the  shorter  and  more  patriotic,  which  was 
Taylor's.  Then  broke  forth  the  high  clangor 
ous  rage  of  the  whole  irritabile  genus;  Tay 
lor  was  dubbed  "  Barnum's  poet  -  laureate  ;  " 
he  was  adjudged  the  winner  because  his  pub 
lisher,  Mr.  Putnam,  and  his  fellow-editor  on  the 
"  Tribune,"  Mr.  Kipley,  were  of  the  committee. 
Newspaper  offices  were  besieged  by  wild-eyed 
poets  bearing  their  verses  with  them  as  con 
spicuous  evidence  of  their  superior  rights  to  the 
prize  and  the  glory.  The  papers  teemed  for  a 
while  with  every  variety  of  "  rejected  addresses," 
"  from  an  epigram  up  to  an  epic." 

1  Taylor    says  there    were   752    disappointed    candidates. 
[Letter  to  Mary  Agnew,  September  18,  1850.] 


REPORTER  AND  TRAVELER.  83 

Bayard  Taylor's  unfortunately  successful 
lyric  was  set  to  music  by  Jules  Benedict  and 
was  sung  by  Jenny  Lind  at  her  first  concert  in 
Castle  Garden. 

To  be  abused  was  a  new  sensation  to  Bayard 
Taylor,  and  his  correspondence  at  this  period  is 
full  of  references  to  the  "  delightful  flaying,"  as 
he  called  it,  that  he  was  undergoing  at  the 
hands  of  every  sixpenny  critic  in  the  country. 
Not  content  to  vilipend  the  poem  his  critics 
proceeded  to  vilify  the  man,  and  Taylor  was 
in  some  fear  that  certain  of  these  ill-natured 
articles  might  be  brought  to  the  notice  of  Mary 
Agnew,  who  at  this  time  was  much  worse. 
"  This  is  a  proper  punishment  to  me  for  having 
defiled  the  temple  of  divine  Poetry.  Depend 
upon  it,"  he  wrote  to  George  H.  Boker,  "  I  shall 
never  do  the  like  again,  and  I  shall  not  fail 
to  woo  her  with  prayers  and  penances  till  the 
fault  be  expiated,  and  she  admits  me  once  more 
into  her  priesthood."  As  with  the  Apothecary 
in  "  Romeo  and  Juliet "  it  was  Bayard  Taylor's 
poverty  and  not  his  will  that  consented  to  this 
vulgar  trial,  and  the  bitter  sense  of  degradation 
that  he  felt  was  the  truest  testimony  to  his 
nobility  of  purpose,  and  the  surest  prophecy  of 
his  future  success. 

The  month  following  this  episode  was  an  anx 
ious  one.    There  was  no  longer  any  hope  of  Mary 


84  BAYARD  TAYLOK. 

Agnew's  recovery.  On  October  24th  they  were 
married.  For  two  months  the  young  wife  lin 
gered,  quietly  patient,  "  radiantly  beautiful,"  but 
not  with  the  beauty  of  earth;  then,  "with  no 
foes  to  pardon  and  no  sins  to  be  forgiven,"  she 
died,  and  in  her  grave  Bayard  Taylor  buried  the 
first  period  of  his  literary  life. 

Until  the  close  of  1850  he  had  undergone 
but  slight  change  of  character.  His  first  visit 
to  Europe,  his  busy  editorial  career  in  New 
York,  the  revelation  to  him  of  fierce  human 
passions  in  California,  had  not  materially  af 
fected  his  early  piety  and  youthful  aspirations. 
He  had  remained  through  all  the  child  of  en 
thusiasm  and  faith.  The  censurings  and  com 
plainings  of  the  friends  at  Kennett,  who  looked 
upon  him  as  on  one  fallen  from  grace,  were 
scarcely  recognized  by  him  as  long  as  that  one 
angel  face  shone  for  him  in  the  old  home,  and 
with  sweet  affection  and  tender  sympathy  made 
the  trim  Quaker  land  a  Paradise.  Now  that 
that  face  had  vanished  Kennett  was  a  painful 
place  to  him.  He  felt,  too,  the  dull  pain  which 
followed  upon  the  long  continued  anxiety.  A 
disinclination  to  work  possessed  him.  He  was 
nervous  and  restless,  and  worn  in  mind  and 
body.  He  matured  his  plans,  long  held  in 
abeyance,  for  a  visit  to  the  Orient.  He  revised 
his  poems,  collected  for  publication  the  best 


EEPOETEE  AND  TRAVELER.      85 

that  he  had  written  since  the  date  of  "  Rhymes 
of  Travel"  (1849),  and  so  rolled  a  stone  across 
the  irrecoverable  and  unforgettable  past.  He 
looked  into  his  financial  affairs,  found  himself 
three  thousand  dollars  to  the  good,  and  the 
owner  of  three  shares  of  "  Tribune "  stock  on 
the  first  day  of  January,  1851,  and  of  two  more 
on  January  21st. 

That  he  was  closing  one  of  the  chapters  of  his 
life  not  even  his  profound  depression  could  pre 
vent  him  from  feeling.  On  New  Year's  Day, 
1851,  he  wrote  to  George  H.  Boker,  "  This, 
the  beginning  of  the  year,  the  turning-point  of 
the  century,  seems  to  me  like  the  beginning  of 
a  new  career."  And  to  James  T.  Fields  he 
wrote  (April  19,  1851),  "  I  am  getting  into  a 
very  different  sphere  of  thought,  and  feel  that, 
whether  it  be  better  or  worse,  I  never  can 
wholly  return  to  the  themes  I  have  hitherto 
tried." 

He  sailed  from  Philadelphia,  August  28, 1851, 
on  the  City  of  Manchester,  bound  for  Liver 
pool.  All  home  affairs  had  been  set  in  order, 
Greeley  had  promptly  consented  to  his  absence, 
and  the  editing  of  a  "  Cyclopaedia  of  Literature 
and  the  Fine  Arts,"  for  Putnam,  had  provided 
him  with  the  means  of  travel.  He  left  behind 
him  his  old  life,  and,  as  the  crown  and  culmina 
tion  of  it,  a  volume  of  poems,  "  A  Book  of  Ho- 


86  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

mances,  Lyrics,  and  Songs,"  published  by  Tick- 
nor,  Reed  &  Fields,  soon  after  his  departure. 

In  London  he  met  the  Brownings  and  John 
Kenyon  and  Lady  Stuart  Wortley,  and  went 
by  way  of  Heidelberg  and  Niirnberg  to  Trieste, 
and  thence  to  Smyrna  and  Alexandria.  For 
two  years  and  four  months  he  was  away  from 
home.  His  experiences  were  strange,  and  the 
barbaric  East  gave  him  gorgeous  days  and  sol 
emn  nights.  The  first  year  of  his  journey 
found  him  in  Egypt,  Syria,  Palestine,  and  Asia 
Minor.  Upon  the  Nile  he  writes,  "  Every  day 
opens  with  &  jubilate,  and  closes  with  a  thanks 
giving.  If  such  a  balm  and  blessing  as  this  life 
has  been  to  me,  thus  far,  can  be  felt  twice  in  one's 
existence,  there  must  be  another  Nile  somewhere 
in  the  world." 1  A  fortnight  before  reaching 
the  turning  point  on  the  White  Nile  he  wrote 
the  "Nilotic  Drinking  Song:  "  — 

"You  may  water  your  bays,  brother  poets,  with  lays 

That  brighten  the  cup  from  the  stream  you  dote  on, 
By  the  Schuylkill's  side,  or  Cochituate's  tide, 
Or  the  crystal  lymph  of  the  mountain  Croton : 
(We  may  pledge  from  these 
In  our  summer  ease, 
Nor  even  Anacreon's  shade  revile  us — ) 
But  I,  from  the  flood 
Of  his  own  brown  blood, 
Will  drink  to  the  glory  of  ancient  Nilus  1  " 

1  A  Journey  to  Central  Africa,  p.  86. 


REPORTER  AND   TRAVELER.  87 

He  passed  beyond  the  utmost  bounds  of  civ 
ilization,  and  up  the  Nubian  Nile  into  Ethio 
pia.  After  he  had  reached  Khartoum  he  pro 
ceeded  by  the  White  Nile  to  the  country  of  the 
Shillooks.  At  this  time  the  strangest  rumors 
found  place  in  the  newspapers  at  home,  now 
to  the  effect  that  Taylor  had  gone  to  the  source 
of  the  Nile,  and  now  that  he  was  exploring  the 
Niger,  or  losing  himself  in  the  enormous  wilder 
ness  of  equatorial  Africa.  His  letters  in  the 
"  Tribune  "  were  eagerly  looked  for,  and  every 
exaggerated  report  of  his  wanderings  found 
ready  credence.  Taylor  had  become  a  popular 
figure,  and  he  was  unconsciously  building  up, 
thousands  of  miles  from  home,  the  very  reputa 
tion  that  he  was  least  ambitious  to  possess.  The 
secret  of  his  immense  vogue  as  a  lecturer  was 
the  universal  curiosity  that  he  had  excited  as  a 
traveler.  Browning's  "  Waring  "  expresses  the 
feeling  that  most  persons  had  for  Taylor.  As 
the  traveler  who  had  penetrated  the  romantic 
East,  —  Vishnu  land,  "  where  whole  new  thou 
sands  are,"  —  he  carried  with  him  an  atmos 
phere  of  strangeness  and  remoteness  and  mys 
tery.  Longfellow  dwells  upon  it  in  his  verses 
upon  the  death  of  Taylor :  — 

"  Traveler,  in  what  realms  afar, 
In  what  planet,  in  what  star, 
In  what  vast  aerial  space 
Shines  the  light  upon  thy  face  ?  " 


88  BAYAED  TAYLOE. 

The  most  popular  pictures  of  Taylor  repre 
sented  him  in  Oriental  garb.  The  first  "Put 
nam's  "  had  him  in  Arab  burnoose  and  turban, 
and  Hicks's  painting  of  him  in  Eastern  dress 
and  with  Persian  pipe  was  instantly  recognized 
by  every  one  who  had  read  (and  who  had  not 
read  ?)  "  The  Lands  of  the  Saracen." 

Bayard  Taylor  was  the  ideal  traveler,  and  he 
was  most  at  home  in  the  Orient.  His  belief 
that  in  him  the  Palm  and  Pine  commingled  has 
already  been  referred  to.  He  invariably  as 
sumed  the  garb  of  the  people  among  whom  he 
happened  to  live,  and  seemed  to  don  with  the 
dress,  the  language  and  the  habits  of  the  race. 
"  It  needed  not,"  says  E.  C.  Stedman,  "  Hicks's 
picture  of  the  bronzed  traveler,  in  his  turban 
and  Asiatic  costume,  smoking,  cross-legged,  upon 
a  roof-top  of  Damascus,  to  show  us  how  much 
of  a  Syrian  he  then  was.  We  saw  it  in  those 
down-drooping  eyelids  which  made  his  profile 
like  Tennyson's ;  in  his  aquiline  nose,  with  the 
expressive  tremor  of  the  nostrils  as  he  spoke ;  in 
his  thinly  tufted  chin,  his  close  curling  hair,  his 
love  of  spices,  music,  coffee,  colors,  and  per 
fumes  ;  his  sensitiveness  to  outdoor  influences, 
to  the  freshness  of  the  morning,  the  bath,  the 
elemental  touch  of  air  and  water  and  the  life- 
giving  sun.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  '  Poems  of 
the  Orient,'  where  we  have  these  traits  reflected 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELER.  89 

in  diverse  lyrics  that  make  a  fascinating  whole. 
In  them  he  seemed  to  give  full  vent  to  his 
flood  of  song."  In  only  one  respect  did  these 
Arab  features  belie  the  wearer  of  them.  The 
Abyssinian  sun  had  so  burnt  that  aquiline  nose, 
which  was  always  thin  (so  thin  that  of  it  in 
Piatti's  bust  of  him  Taylor  declared  that  it  was 
"  the  thinnest  nose  ever  cast  in  plaster  "),  that 
the  skin  had  cracked,  and  there  grew  upon  his 
face  a  permanent  look  of  disdain  which  repelled 
from  him  many  who  had  not  learned  the  real 
sweetness  of  his  nature,  and  gave  him  at  times 
a  reputation  for  coldness  and  pride  which  his 
gentle  and  generous  life  in  no  wise  deserved. 

In  a  letter  to  James  T.  Fields,  dated  Constan 
tinople,  July  14,  1852,  Taylor  writes,  "  If  you 
could  see  me  now  you  would  swear  I  was  a 
disciple  of  the  Prophet.  I  am  become 

"  '  Long  and  lank  and  brown 
As  is  the  ribbed  sea-sand,' 

but  I  pray  you  mislike  me  not  for  my  complex 
ion.  I  wear  the  tarboosh,  smoke  the  Persian 
pipe,  and  drop  cross-legged  on  the  floor  with  the 
ease  of  any  tailor  whatever.  When  I  went  into 
my  bankers'  they  addressed  me  in  Turkish. 
The  other  day,  at  Brousa,  my  fellow-Mussulmen 
indignantly  denounced  me  as  damned,  because 
I  broke  the  fast  of  the  Ramazan  by  taking  a 
drink  of  water  in  the  bazaar.  I  have  gone  into 


90  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

the  holiest  mosques  in  Asia  Minor  with  perfect 
impunity.  I  determined  to  taste  the  Orient  as 
it  was,  in  reality,  not  as  a  mere  outside  looker- 
on,  and  so  picked  up  the  Arabic  tongue,  put  on 
the  wide  trowsers,  and  adopted  as  many  East 
ern  customs  as  was  becoming  to  a  good  Chris 
tian." 

In  his  diary,  under  the  date  of  November  5th, 
he  writes,  "  I  have  a  southern  soul,  it  seems,  for 
I  feel  strongest  and  happiest  when  I  am  where 
the  sun  can  blaze  upon  me ;  "  and  again  he  adds, 
"  I  am  a  worshiper  of  the  sun.  I  took  off  my 
hat  to  him,  as  I  stood  there,  in  a  wilderness  of 
white,  crimson,  and  purple  flowers,  and  let  him 
blaze  away  in  my  face  for  a  quarter  of  an  hour. 
And  as  I  walked  home  with  my  back  to  him,  I 
often  turned  my  face  from  side  to  side  that  I 
might  feel  his  touch  on  my  cheek." 

The  climate  of  Khartoum  affected  him  un 
favorably.  "  He  who  lives  in  Khartoum  in 
the  hot  season,"  he  said,  "must  either  sweat 
or  die."  He  therefore  turned  away  from  "  the 
silent  fiery  world  of  tawny  sand  and  ink  black 
porphyry  mountains  in  the  heart  of  Nubia,"  and 
reached  Cairo,  April  1,  1852,  and  Smyrna, 
April  22d.  On  horseback  he  proceeded  to  Jeru 
salem,  Damascus,  Aleppo,  and  through  Asia 
Minor  to  Constantinople,  where  he  arrived  July 
12th.  He  then  set  out  for  home,  going  first  to 


REPORTER  AND  TRAVELER.  91 

Malta,  and  thence  by  a  small  sailing-boat  to 
Catania  in  Sicily,  where  he  witnessed,  August 
17-20,  the  festival  of  St.  Agatha  which  occurs 
but  once  in  a  hundred  years.  As  he  rode  forth 
in  the  diligence  from  Catania,  he  saw  the 
flames  and  heard  the  thunders  of  the  eruption 
of  Mount  Etna.  By  way  of  Leghorn,  Florence, 
and  Venice  he  entered  Germany,  called  at 
Gotha  upon  Mr.  Bufleb,  the  companion  of  his 
voyage  upon  the  Nile,  and  was  again  in  London 
October  11,  1852. 

He  renewed  some  old  acquaintances,  met 
Mazzini,  Miss  Mitford,  George  Peabody,  Mary 
Howitt,  and  a  few  other  celebrities,  but  in  less 
than  three  weeks  he  was  away  again  from  the 
foggy,  sticky,  "  bituminous  metropolis."  His 
maledictions  upon  English  sun  and  autumn 
rains  recall  Landor's  growl  that  "one  might 
live  comfortably  in  England  if  he  were  rich 
enough  to  possess  a  solar  system  of  his  own." 

His  course  now  was  to  the  south.  Through  the 
sleepless  Bay  of  Biscay  he  proceeded  to  Spain, 
and  by  the  India  mail  steamer  reached  Bombay, 
December  27,  1852.  His  heavy  luggage  he 
sent  by  steamer  to  Calcutta,  and,  rid  of  all  im 
pedimenta,  he  went  overland  by  cart  to  Indore, 
Agra,  and  Delhi.  Brief  as  his  time  was,  he 
made  a  hurried  and  rough  journey  to  the  high 
est  point  in  the  Himalayas  which  could  be 


92  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

reached  in  the  winter  season,  and  in  less  than 
two  months  traveled  twenty-two  hundred  miles 
in  the  interior.  But  no  rapidity  of  travel  could 
rob  his  eye  of  the  beauty  or  deprive  him  of  the 
significance  of  the  scenery  and  the  life.  At 
Dehra  he  stayed  with  Mr.  Keene,  the  deputy 
marshal,  the  H.  G.  K.  of  "  Blackwood's."  At 
Benares  he  was  the  guest  of  Fitzedward  Hall, 
the  professor  of  Sanskrit. 

When  he  had  reached  Constantinople  in  July 
he  had  found  a  letter  from  the  "  Tribune  "  office 
awaiting  him.  It  contained  a  proposition  to 
him  to  accompany  Commodore  Perry's  expedi 
tion  to  Japan,  the  "  Tribune "  to  supply  the 
funds  and  to  obtain  him  a  place  on  board  of 
the  flagship.  This  last  proved  more  difficult 
than  his  "  Tribune  "  associates  had  foreseen,  and 
Taylor  was  finally  instructed  to  proceed  to 
Hong  Kong,  where  he  would  meet  Commodore 
Perry,  who  had  said  that  he  would  be  very 
"  happy  to  see  Mr.  Taylor. "  It  was  Taylor's 
haste  to  reach  the  Chinese  port  that  was  hurry 
ing  him  so  rapidly  across  country  to  Delhi  and 
Calcutta.  After  touching  at  Singapore  he  ar 
rived  in  Hong  Kong  March  16,  1853.  Upon 
the  invitation  of  Captain  Buchanan  he  went  on 
board  the  Susquehanna  and  sailed  to  Macao 
and  Shanghai.  An  ineffectual  attempt  was  made 
to  reach  Nankin,  and  the  Susquehanna  returned 


EEPOETEE  AND   TEAVELEE.  93 

to  Shanghai,  where  Taylor  presented  himself 
to  Commodore  Perry,  who  had  arrived  from 
Hong  Kong,  and  received  from  him  after  some 
delay  and  diplomacy  the  post  of  master's  mate. 
The  rules  of  the  service  prevented  Taylor  from 
writing  a  line  for  publication.  He  kept  a  care 
ful  journal  which  he  delivered  to  the  Navy  De 
partment,  but  which  he  was  never  permitted  to 
recover.  It  was  consulted  by  Francis  Lister 
Hawks  in  his  "  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  of 
an  American  Squadron  to  the  China  Sea  and 
Japan"  (1856). 

After  four  months'  service  Commodore  Perry 
gave  the  master's  mate  permission  to  resign,  and 
Bayard  Taylor,  after  a  letter  to  George  H.  Boker 
written  from  the  grotto  at  Macao  "  where  our 
brother  Camoens  wrote  the  '  Lusiad,'  "  went  by 
steamer  to  Canton  and  embarked  on  the  Sea- 
Serpent,  a  merchant  ship  bound  for  New  York 
round  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and,  after  a  long 
tumble  about  the  Cape,  and  a  brief  halt  at  St. 
Helena,  he  arrived  in  fourteen  weeks  (Decem 
ber  20, 1853)  at  New  York.  Macaulay  when  he 
sailed  for  India  took  with  him  the  seventy  vol 
umes  of  Voltaire  for  playful  diversion  by  the 
way ;  Taylor  in  his  ocean  transit  committed 
more  than  a  score  of  poems  to  paper,  rewrote 
the  letters  which  had  been  lost  at  sea,  and  com 
pleted  the  literary  record  of  two  years  of  travel. 


94  SAYAED  TAYLOR. 

His  books  of  travel  in  their  time  were  highly 
esteemed,  for  they  told  of  striking  adventure 
and  splendid  courage  and  persistence,  and  they 
still  find  a  ready  sale,  although  the  demand  for 
that  class  of  literature  has  greatly  fallen  off. 
Their  chief  merit  is  reportorial.  Taylor's  object 
was  to  give  correct  pictures  of  foreign  life  and 
scenery,  and  he  wisely  left  antiquarian  research 
and  speculation  to  abler  hands.  His  books  are, 
as  he  said,  "  a  series  of  cosmoramic  views."  To 
him  "  a  live  Arab  "  was  more  interesting  than  "  a 
dead  Pharaoh."  He  had  no  ambition  to  build  a 
reputation  upon  his  prose,  but  his  style  was  al 
ways  perspicuous,  and  at  times  vivid.  He  resisted 
the  temptation  to  write  flamboyant  descriptions, 
and  wrote  simply  and  concisely.  His  word  pic 
tures  of  architecture  and  scenery  retain  their 
place  in  the  hand-books  of  foreign  travel  to  voice 
the  inarticulate  emotion  of  the  tourist,  and  his 
account  of  a  hasheesh  debauch  and  of  an  Orien 
tal  bath,  in  "  The  Lands  of  the  Saracen,"  justifies 
the  criticism  that  has  named  him  "  the  best 
American  reporter  of  scenes  and  incidents." 

His  protracted  travels  broke  up  or  interrupted 
his  associations  in  America.  He  returned  from 
distant  journeys  to  find  remarkable  changes  in 
social  and  literary  life,  old  cliques  disbanded, 
and  former  friendships  dissolved.  The  reputa 
tion  that  he  had  as  a  traveler,  and  the  curiosity 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELER.  95 

that  the  people  showed  in  him,  excited  the  envy 
of  some  of  his  fellows  in  the  press.  Malicious 
falsehoods  concerning  him  were  invented  and 
circulated.  One  epigrammatic  fiction  more  in 
genious  than  the  rest  was  widely  repeated.  It 
has  become  one  of  the  best  known  anecdotes  of 
literary  men.  The  bare  mention  of  the  name  of 
Bayard  Taylor  is  sufficient  to  recall  the  state 
ment  that  Humboldt  once  said  that  of  all  men 
he  had  ever  known  Taylor  had  traveled  the 
farthest  and  had  seen  the  least.  The  story  was 
witty,  and  it  had  an  air  of  verisimilitude.  It  was 
such  a  thing  as  Humboldt  might  have  said,  for 
Taylor  made  no  pretensions  to  scientific  know 
ledge  ;  he  did  not  assume  to  know  scientifically 
the  geology  and  the  sociology  of  the  countries  he 
visited.  The  things  over  which  the  author  of 
"  Cosmos  "  would  have  paused  in  delighted  sur 
prise  Taylor  does  not  see  or  at  least  says  nothing 
about.  He  sketches  the  gay,  the  bizarre,  the  ex 
terior  life  of  the  countries  that  he  visits.  The 
story  nevertheless  was  entirely  without  founda 
tion  and  was  invented  by  Park  Benjamin,  who, 
upon  his  death-bed,  acknowledged  having  origi 
nated  it. 

Taylor  always  explained  the  spiteful  story  by 
saying  that  Park  Benjamin  had  asked  him  for  a 
set  of  his  works,  and  Taylor,  feeling  that  he  could 
not  afford  to  make  the  present,  had  by  his  re- 


96  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

fusal  to  comply  with  the  request  excited  Benja 
min's  enmity  and  desire  for  revenge. 

"  By-Ways  of  Europe  "  was  a  book  of  trav 
els  published  by  Taylor  in  1869.  It  was  the 
eleventh  volume  of  travel  that  he  had  written 
and  published.  He  believed  it  to  be  probably 
his  last,  and  he  prefaced  it  with  "  a  familiar 
letter  to  the  reader,"  in  which,  with  his  finger 
upon  the  reader's  buttonhole,  he  relates  the  cir 
cumstances  that  led  to  the  series  of  personal  and 
literary  experiences  which  his  ten  previous  vol 
umes  had  contained.  "  As  I  have  been  specially 
styled,  for  so  many  years  and  little  to  my  own 
satisfaction,  '  a  traveler '  or  '  a  tourist,'  and  in 
either  character  have  received  praise  and  blame, 
equally  founded  on  a  misconception  of  the  facts 
and  hopes  of  my  life,  I  claim  the  privilege,  this 
once,  to  set  the  truth  before  those  who  may  care 
to  hear  it."  ("  By-Ways,"  p.  7.)  He  proceeds 
to  tell  how  he  was  driven  to  his  first  tramp  trip 
(1844)  by  the  strong  necessity  of  providing 
for  himself  sources  of  education  which,  situated 
as  he  was,  could  not  be  reached  at  home.  It 
was  as  an  obedient  servant  of  the  Press  that 
he  had  gone  to  California  and  Mexico  in  1849. 
"  When,  two  years  later,  a  change  of  scene  and 
of  occupation  became  imperative,  from  the  action 
of  causes  quite  external  to  my  own  plans  and 
hopes,  my  first  thought  naturally  was  to  com- 


EEPOETER  AND   TRAVELER.  97 

plete  my  imperfect  scheme  of  travel  by  a  journey 
to  Egypt  and  the  Orient.  I  was,  moreover, 
threatened  with  an  affection  of  the  throat,  for 
which  the  climate  of  Africa  offered  a  sure  rem 
edy."  ("By- Ways,"  p.  10.) 

He  admits  that  this  free  rambling  was  "  a 
grateful  release  from  the  drudgery  of  the  edi 
torial  room.  After  three  years  of  clipping  and 
pasting,  and  the  daily  arrangement  of  a  chaos 
of  ephemeral  shreds,  in  an  atmosphere  which 
soon  exhausts  the  vigor  of  the  blood,  the  change 
to  the  freedom  of  Oriental  life  .  .  .  was  like 
that  from  night  to  day.  With  restored  health, 
the  life  of  the  body  became  a  delight  in  itself ; 
a  kindly  fortune  seemed  to  attend  my  steps  ;  I 
learned  something  of  the  patience  and  fatalistic 
content  of  the  races  among  whom  I  was  thrown, 
and  troubled  myself  no  longer  with  an  anxious 
concern  for  the  future." 

During  a  winter  and  summer  trip  to  the  far 
North  (1856-57),  and  a  journey  to  Greece  and 
Russia  which  immediately  followed,  he  found, 
as  he  says,  that  his  former  enjoyment  of  new 
scenes  and  the  zest  of  getting  knowledge  at  first 
hand  were  sensibly  diminished  by  regret  for  the 
lack  of  those  severe  preparatory  studies  which 
would  have  enabled  him  to  see  and  learn  so 
much  more.  He  was  once  lamenting  his  lack 
of  special  knowledge  when  Humboldt  said  to 


98  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

him,  "  But  you  paint  the  world  as  we  explorers 
of  science  cannot.  Do  not  undervalue  what  you 
have  done.  It  is  a  real  service  ;  and  the  unsci 
entific  traveler  who  knows  the  use  of  his  eyes 
observes  for  us  always  without  being  aware  of 
it."  Dr.  Barth  and  Dr.  Petermann  voluntarily 
confessed  their  interest  in  the  power  with  which 
Taylor  brought  vividly  home  to  thousands  of 
firesides  clear  pictures  of  the  remotest  regions 
of  the  earth.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  told  Taylor 
that  he  was  the  cause  of  Tennyson's  visit  to  Nor 
way  ;  after  reading  "Northern  Travel"  Tenny 
son  was  determined  to  see  the  Northern  lands. 

At  one  time  when  the  influence  of  Humboldt 
was  upon  him,  the  idea  hovered  before  his  mind 
of  constructing  "  a  human  cosmos,  which  should 
represent  the  race  in  its  grand  divisions,  its  re 
lation  to  soil  and  climate,  its  varieties  of  mental 
and  moral  development,  and  its  social,  political 
and  spiritual  phenomena,  with  the  complex 
causes  from  which  they  spring."  He  read,  in 
the  East,  Riickert's  "  Morgenlandische  Sagen 
und  Geschichten,"  and  Goethe's  "  West-Oest- 
licher  Divan."  He  aspired  after  "  the  un 
shackled  range  of  all  experience."  And  while 
he  did  not  hesitate  to  confess  that  to  be  styled  "  a 
great  American  traveler  "  had  always  touched 
him  with  a  sense  of  humiliation,  as  if  one  should 
say  "  a  great  American  pupil,"  he  realized  that 


EEPOETEE  AND   TRAVELER.  99 

he  had  gained  in  breadth  of  view  and  richness 
of  life,  and  in  "  1'Envoi "  to  the  "  Poems  of  the 
Orient "  he  wrote  :  — 

"  For  not  to  any  race  or  any  clime 

Is  the  completed  sphere  of  life  revealed ; 
He  who  would  make  his  own  that  round  sublime 
Must  pitch  his  tent  on  many  a  distant  field." 


CHAPTER  III. 

LECTUKER   AND   LANDOWNER. 

1854-1860. 

BAYARD  TAYLOR  found  a  copy  of  "Eldo 
rado  "  in  a  library  at  the  foot  of  the  Himalayas. 
He  had  been  told  by  James  T.  Fields  that  his 
books  were  selling  to  travelers  in  England  at 
every  railway  station.  Despite  these  evidences 
of  popular  and  unusual  interest  he  was  unpre 
pared  for  the  universal  curiosity  concerning 
him  that  he  found  upon  his  return  to  America. 
The  "  Tribune "  letters  had  been  widely  and 
eagerly  read,  —  "  the  4  Tribune '  comes  next  to 
the  Bible  all  through  the  West,"  Bayard  wrote 
to  his  mother,  —  the  adventures  of  his  youth 
and  the  sad  romance  of  his  early  manhood  had 
fascinated  the  public,  and  there  were  many 
thousands  from  Maine  to  Wisconsin  who  were 
impatient  to  see  the  returned  "  Waring  "  —  Av 
atar  of  Vishnu  land. 

In  the  early  "  fifties  "  the  lyceum  lecture  sys 
tem  was  at  its  height.  In  the  West,  particu 
larly,  popular  education  was  supposed  to  be 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.          101 

forwarded  by  lectures  on  every  conceivable 
subject  delivered  in  every  imaginable  manner. 
The  prices  paid  to  lecturers,  in  the  Eastern 
States  at  least,  were  not  magnificent.  James 
T.  Fields  said  humorously  that  he  and  Dr. 
Holmes  were  wont  to  get  five  dollars  for  a  lec 
ture,  and  that  upon  one  occasion  the  lyceum 
refused  to  pay,  because,  said  the  chairman,  "  It 
wa'n't  as  good  as  we  expected."  George  Wil 
liam  Curtis  tried  the  lecture  platform  to  retrieve 
his  fortunes  from  business  calamity,  and  when 
he  received  fifty  dollars  for  one  evening  he  ex 
claimed  jubilantly  "  I  am  now  getting  the  price 
of  aprima  donna"  Still  the  fancy  for  lectures 
was  sufficiently  fresh  and  strong  to  insure  to  a 
popular  past-master  in  the  art  an  income  more 
substantial  than  he  could  hope  to  earn  with  his 
pen. 

Bayard  Taylor  was  an  excellent  lecturer.  His 
manner  was  easy,  fluent,  conversational.  He 
told  his  story  simply  and  frankly,  and  the  story 
was  one  of  absorbing  interest.  He  wrote  three 
lectures,  —  "  The  Arabs,"  "  India,"  "  Japan  and 
Loo  Choo,"  —  that  were  vivid  word-pictures  of 
the  lands  and  people  they  described.  G.  P.  R. 
James  once  said  that  Bayard  Taylor  was  the 
best  landscape  painter  in  words  that  he  had  ever 
known.  And  this  art,  the  reporter's  art,  Taylor 
exercised  without  any  attempt  at  "fine  writ- 


102  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

ing;"  he  simply  saw  clearly  the  thing  he  de 
scribed,  and  told  what  he  saw  in  a  plain  way. 

"  I  have  a  quiet  laugh  to  myself  now  and 
then,"  he  said  to  J.  T.  Fields,  "  at  the  idea  of 
being  a  popular  lecturer,  I  who  have  no  faculty 
for  anything  like  oratory.  I  see  how  it  is  that 
people  are  interested  in  what  I  say;  but  that 
does  n't  lessen  the  absurdity  of  the  thing.  I 
care  no  more  for  the  applause  I  receive  from 
lecturing  than  if  it  were  bestowed  on  somebody 
else ;  the  only  advantage  I  am  conscious  of  is, 
that  I  can  stand  up  in  the  face  of  the  multitude 
without  feeling  embarrassed." 

Between  January  and  May,  1854,  he  filled 
ninety  lecture  engagements,  even  small  towns 
paying  him  fifty  dollars  a  lecture,  and  in  the 
fall  he  delivered  one  hundred  and  thirty  more. 
In  Baltimore  he  addressed  an  audience  of  four 
thousand  persons.  A  special  train  was  run  from 
Canandaigua  to  Penn  Yan,  when  he  was  lectur 
ing  at  the  latter  place.  "  Vagabondage,"  Taylor 
called  the  nomadic  life  he  was  now  living,  and  it 
quickly  grew  repugnant  to  him.  "  I  am  stared 
at  and  pointed  at,"  he  wrote  to  his  mother,  "as 
if  I  were  the  great  Gyaskutos  [sic]  itself."  To 
R.  H.  Stoddard  he  wrote,  "  I  have  lectured  nine 
times  since  I  saw  you,  and  have  had  great  suc 
cess  everywhere.  Crammed  houses,  women  car 
ried  out  fainting,  young  ladies  stretching  their 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         103 

necks  on  all  sides  and  crying  in  breathless  whis 
pers,  '  there  he  is !  that 's  him ! ' : 

Grace  Greenwood  tells  of  an  interesting  after 
noon  in  the  Old  Corner  Bookstore  in  Boston, 
when  Taylor,  in  a  weary  and  a  somewhat  petu 
lant  mood,  dissuaded  her  from  lecturing,  saying 
that  it  was  an  occupation  full  of  misery,  that  he 
himself  detested  it,  and  that  an  audience  seemed 
to  him  no  other  thing  than  a  collection  of  cab 
bage-heads.  A  few  minutes  later  Mr.  Emerson 
congratulated  her  upon  the  thought  of  lecturing, 
saying  that  there  was  recompense  for  all  the 
hardships  of  the  work  in  the  kind  words  and 
the  smiling  faces  and  the  bright  eyes  of  the 
audience. 

In  this  busy  year  (1854)  he  published  in  one 
season  three  books,  "  A  Journey  to  Central  Af 
rica,  or  Life  and  Landscapes  from  Egypt  to  the 
Negro  Kingdoms  of  the  White  Nile,"1  "The 
Lands  of  the  Saracen,  or  Pictures  of  Palestine, 
Asia  Minor,  Sicily,  and  Spain," 2  and  "  Poems 
of  the  Orient."  3 

Even  his  buoyant  spirits  and  abundant  health 
drooped  and  flagged  at  times,  not  from  stress  of 
work  so  much  as  because  of  the  tedious  jour 
neys,  the  ill-cooked  food,  and  the  tiresome  con- 

1  Published  August,  1854. 

2  Published  October,  1854. 

8  Published  October  27,  1854. 


104  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

gratulations  the  thousandth  time  repeated.  His 
lecture  engagements  often  carried  him  into  a 
zone  of  tough  steaks,  bad  water,  and  no  beer, 
whose  miseries  he  was  constrained  to  endure 
until  his  deliverance  into  a  mellower  region. 
"  I  am  quite  fagged  out,"  he  writes  to  his 
mother,  "  not  with  speaking,  but  with  traveling, 
and  with  being  shown  up,  introduced,  ques 
tioned,  visited,  and  made  to  visit,  handshaken, 
autographed,  honorary  membershiped,  compli 
mented,  censured,  quizzed,  talked  about  before 
my  face  by  people  who  don't  know  me,  written 
about  in  the  papers,  displayed  on  handbills, 
sold  on  tickets,  applied  to  for  charitable  pur 
poses,  and  the  Lord  knows  what  else."  Where 
his  audiences  were  intelligent  and  sympathetic 
Taylor  found  the  work  pleasant  enough.  Pitts 
burgh  he  preferred  to  all  other  cities  to  lecture 
in.  Prosperity  came  with  the  popularity.  How 
ever  distasteful  the  work  he  was  doing,  it 
brought  ever  nearer  that  independence  of  for 
tune  which  was  to  make  possible  his  scheme  of 
life.  The  " Tribune"  was  paying  comfortable 
dividends,  his  books  of  travel  were  selling  rap 
idly,  seven  thousand  copies  of  the  "  Journey  to 
Central  Africa,"  and  a  like  number  of  "  The 
Lands  of  the  Saracen,"  having  been  ordered 
before  publication.  He  was  preparing  for  a 
Western  house  a  "Cyclopaedia  of  Travel," 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         105 

lor  which,  though  perfunctory  task  work,  he  was 
to  receive  five  thousand  dollars. 

He  had  cause  to  congratulate  himself  and  to 
rejoice,  to  believe  the  singing  birds  musicians, 
the  flowers  fair  ladies,  and  his  steps  no  more 
than  a  delightful  measure  or  a  dance. 

Before  his  return  from  Europe  in  1853,  the 
Pusey  farm,  a  tract  of  eighty  acres  near  Ken- 
nett,  which  he  had  long  wanted  to  possess,  was 
purchased  for  him.  In  1855  he  added  to  it 
about  forty-five  acres  which  he  bought  from  his 
father,' and  forty  acres,  with  an  ancient  stone 
farmhouse,  obtained  from  his  uncle.  It  was  his 
purpose  to  build  a  large  house  which  should  be 
the  home  of  all  his  family.  He  improved  the 
land,  planted  evergreen  trees,  and  while  busy  in 
remote  parts  of  the  country  lecturing  was  never 
far  in  thought  from  Kennett,  and  constantly 
sent  money  to  his  mother  for  the  purchase  of 
trees  and  shrubs. 

Two  brief  vacations  he  allowed  himself  in 
1855.  He  took  his  father  and  mother  in  May  to 
the  Mammoth  Cave,  which,  he  says,  is  beyond 
"  Vathek's  Hall  of  Eblis ;  "  and  in  August,  as 
representative  of  the  "  Tribune,"  he  accompanied 
Lieutenant  Maury  and  Professor  Silliman  and  a 
scientific  party  to  put  down  the  submarine  tele 
graph  between  Nova  Scotia  and  Newfoundland. 
Soon  after  his  return  from  the  latter  trip  he 


106  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

published  in  September  "A  Visit  to  India, 
China  and  Japan  in  the  year  1853,"  and  fol 
lowed  it  about  the  middle  of  November  with 
"Poems  of  Home  and  Travel,"  and  a  revised 
edition  of  "Views  Afoot"  with  a  new  preface. 

The  winter  of  1855-56  was  unusually  severe. 
Again  Taylor  had  undertaken  a  heavy  burden 
of  lecture  engagements.  In  February,  1856,  he 
broke  down  in  Boston  and  upon  medical  advice 
canceled  all  his  engagements,  abandoned  his  ir 
regular  life,  returned  to  New  York  and  cleared 
away  all  arrears  of  work,  and  completed  every 
literary  obligation.  Never  before  did  he  do  so 
much  in  the  same  space  of  time.  Between  the 
first  of  April  and  the  seventeenth  of  June,  he 
finished  nine  hundred  royal  octavo  pages  of  the 
"  Cyclopaedia  of  Modern  Travel,"  "  besides  pre 
paring  thirteen  maps  and  a  variety  of  cuts  and 
looking  after  the  printing,  engraving,  etc." 

Another  period  of  his  life  closed  when,  with 
all  tasks  well  ended,  he  sailed  for  Europe,  on 
July  9th,  taking  with  him  his  two  sisters  and 
his  youngest  brother.  For  four  months  he 
played  the  complete  part  of  guide,  philosopher 
and  friend.  He  traveled  familiar  ground,  seeing 
afresh  the  famous  places  through  the  delighted 
eyes  of  his  companions.  In  Germany  he  was 
surprised  and  more  than  pleased  at  the  way  in 
which  he  was  received.  He  wrote  to  his  mo- 


LECTUEEE  AND  LANDOWNER.         107 

ther,  to  whom  very  frankly  he  related  circum 
stances  which  it  would  have  savored  of  vanity  or 
affectation  to  disclose  to  another,  "  Dresden  is 
the  literary  city  of  Germany,  and  I  met  with  all 
the  authors  living  there.  I  was  delighted  to  find 
that  they  all  knew  me.  When  I  called  on  the 
poet  Julius  Hammer,  he  was  at  his  desk,  trans 
lating  my  poem  of  4  Steyermark.'  Gutzkow 
the  dramatist,  Auerbach  the  novelist,  Dr.  An- 
dree  the  geographer,  and  others  whose  names 
are  known  all  over  Europe,  welcomed  me  as  a 
friend  and  brother  author.  We  had  a  grand 
dinner  together  the  day  before  I  left.  The 
Dresden  papers  spoke  of  me  as  a  distinguished 
guest,  and  published  translations  of  my  poems. 
In  fact  I  think  I  am  almost  as  well  known  in 
Germany  as  in  the  United  States." 

He  settled  his  sisters  and  brother  at  a  pension 
in  Lausanne  while  he  returned  for  a  second  and 
longer  visit  to  Gotha,  from  whence  he  started  by 
way  of  Coburg,  Dresden,  and  Berlin  to  carry  out 
his  old  intention  of  a  journey  to  the  land  of  the 
midnight  sun.  With  his  companion,  Braisted, 
a  sailor,  who  was  acting  as  his  valet,  he  set  forth 
from  Stockholm,  December  15, 1856,  and  in  two 
months  made  the  tour  of  Lapland. 

He  traveled  "  nearly  twenty-two  hundred 
miles,  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  them  by  rein 
deer,  and  nearly  five  hundred  within  the  Arctic 


108  SAYAED   TAYLOR. 

circle."  Reindeer  travel  he  compares  to  a  frisky 
sturgeon  harnessed  to  a  "  dug-out "  in  a  rough 
sea.  The  book  that  records  his  journey  is 
"  Northern  Travel :  Summer  and  Winter  Pic 
tures  of  Sweden,  Denmark  and  Lapland " 
(1857).  It  is  a  book  of  the  thermometer.  Tay 
lor's  satisfaction  at  his  endurance  of  extreme 
cold  seems  to  take  precedence  of  his  interest  in 
the  life  of  the  country.  At  Kautokeino  he  saw 
a  day  without  a  sun.  "  The  snowy  hills  to  the 
north,  it  is  true,  were  tinged  with  a  flood  of 
rosy  flame,  and  the  very  next  day  would  prob 
ably  bring  down  the  tide  mark  of  sunshine  to 
the  tops  of  the  houses.  One  day,  however,  was 
enough  to  satisfy  me.  You,  my  heroic  friend,1 
may  paint  with  true  pencil  and  still  truer  pen 
the  dreary  solemnity  of  the  long  Arctic  night : 
but,  greatly  as  I  enjoy  your  incomparable  pic 
tures,  much  as  I  honor  your  courage  and  your 
endurance,  you  shall  never  teach  me  to  share 
in  the  experience.  The  South  is  a  cup  which 
one  may  drink  to  inebriation;  but  one  taste 
from  the  icy  goblet  of  the  North  is  enough  to 
allay  curiosity  and  quench  all  further  desire." 
("Northern  Travel,"  p.  132.) 

As  he  left  the  solitude  of  the  North,  he  writes : 
"Not  the  table-land  of  Pamir  in  Thibet,  the 
cradle  of  the  Oxus  and  the  Indus,  but  this  lower 

1  Dr.  Elisha  Kent  Kane. 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         109 

Lapland  terrace,  is  entitled  to  the  designation  of 
the  c  Roof  of  the  World.'  We  were  on  the  sum 
mit,  creeping  along  her  mountain  rafters,  and 
looking  southward,  off  her  shelving  eaves,  to 
catch  a  glimpse  of  the  light  playing  on  her  ma 
jestic  front.  Here  for  once  we  seemed  to  look 
down  on  the  horizon,  and  I  thought  of  Europe 
and  the  tropics  as  lying  below.  Our  journey 
northward  had  been  an  ascent,  but  now  the  world's 
steep  sloped  downward  before  us  into  sunshine 
and  warmer  air."  ("  Northern  Travel,"  p.  147.) 

He  returned  to  Gotha  in  May,  1857,  and 
spent  some  time  in  excursions  into  the  forests 
and  mountains.  He  accompanied  his  sisters  and 
his  brother  to  Bremen,  and  then  visited  Eng 
land.  Thackeray,  whom  he  had  met  in  1855,  in 
troduced  him  to  Tennyson,  with  whom  he  spent 
two  days. 

T.  Buchanan  Read  took  him  to  Hammer 
smith  to  call  on  Leigh  Hunt,  then  seventy- 
three  years  old.  Hunt  showed  him  his  curious 
collection  of  locks  of  hair  of  the  poets.  "  That 
thin  tuft  of  brown  silky  fibres,"  writes  Taylor 
describing  his  visit,  "  could  it  really  have  been 
shorn  from  Milton's  head?  I  asked  myself. 
1  Touch  it,'  said  Leigh  Hunt,  4  and  then  you 
will  have  touched  Milton's  self.'  'There  is  a 
love  in  hair,  though  it  be  dead,'  said  I,  as  I  did 
so,  repeating  a  line  from  Hunt's  own  sonnet  on 
this  lock." 


110  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

To  complete  his  northern  travel,  Taylor  sailed 
from  Hull  (July  3)  for  Christiania,  and  trav 
eled  to  Drontheim.  He  saw  the  midnight  sun  at 
the  North  Cape,  "  and  had  quite  enough  of  the 
North."  A  journey  through  Dalecarlia  to  Stock 
holm,  and  to  Copenhagen  where  he  met  Hans 
Christian  Andersen  and  Professor  Rafn,  com 
pleted  his  quest  after  new  sensation. 

And  now  occurred  the  happiest  event  of  his 
life.  His  companion,  six  years  before,  when 
traveling  upon  the  Nile,  was  a  German  land 
owner  whose  acquaintance  he  had  made  en  route 
from  Smyrna  to  Alexandria.  Between  Mr. 
August  Bufleb,  the  German,  and  Bayard  Taylor 
there  immediately  grew  up  the  most  affectionate 
friendship.  Each  showed  for  the  other  un 
bounded  devotion  and  generosity.  How  roman 
tic  and  how  real  the  attachment  was  may  be 
gathered  from  Bayard  Taylor's  letter  to  his  mo 
ther  (December  19,  1851)  :  "  For  two  days  be 
fore  our  parting  he  could  scarcely  eat  or  sleep, 
and  when  the  time  drew  near  he  was  so  pale 
and  agitated  that  I  almost  feared  to  leave  him. 
I  have  rarely  been  so  moved  as  when  I  saw  a 
strong,  proud  man  exhibit  such  an  attachment 
for  me.  He  told  me  he  could  scarcely  account 
for  it,  but  he  felt  almost  ready  to  give  up  all  his 
engagements  to  return  home  and  accompany  me. 
I  told  him  all  my  history,  and  showed  him  the 


LECTURES  AND  LANDOWNER.         Ill 

portrait  I  have  with  me.1  He  went  out  of  the 
cabin  after  looking  at  it,  and  when  he  returned 
I  saw  that  he  had  been  weeping." 

When  Taylor  returned  from  Newfoundland, 
in  September,  1855,  he  received  a  letter  from 
Mr.  Bufleb  presenting  him  with  a  beautiful  bit 
of  property  in  Gotha.  "  Whilst  you,"  writes 
Bufleb,  "  were  dedicating  your  glorious  work  on 
Central  Africa  to  me,  I  was  setting  in  order  for 
you  the  most  cherished  part  of  my  possessions." 
Taylor  and  his  companions  reached  Gotha  the 
following  August,  and  made  their  home  in  this 
charming  place  which  the  thoughtful  affection 
of  Mr.  Bufleb  had  provided.  "  The  house," 
writes  Taylor,  "  is  furnished  in  antique  style 
with  high-backed,  red  velvet  chairs,  Brussels 
rugs,  sofas,  mirrors,* flower-stands,  matches  and 
cigars  on  the  table,  tea,  sugar,  etc.,  in  the  cup 
board,  and  beer  in  the  cellar.  Nothing  was  for 
gotten  ;  the  smallest  things  were  all  in  their 
places,  and  here  I  live  like  a  prince."  Here,  too, 
he  became  acquainted  with  the  gentle  lady, 
Marie  Hansen,  niece  of  Mrs.  Bufleb  and  daugh 
ter  of  Peter  Andreas  Hansen,  the  eminent  as 
tronomer  and  director  of  the  Ducal  Observatory, 
to  whom  he  was  married  in  Gotha  October  27, 
1857.  Through  the  remaining  twenty-one  years 
of  his  life  she  was  his  loyal  helper  in  all  his  toil, 
1  His  picture  of  Mary  Agnew. 


112  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

and  after  his  death  she  collected  with  affection- 
ate  care  his  large  correspondence  that  was  dis 
persed  through  many  hands,  and  with  Horace 
E.  Scudder  edited  the  admirable  and  complete 
"  Life  and  Letters  of  Bayard  Taylor." 

After  his  marriage,  Taylor  went  with  his  wife 
to  London,  where  he  superintended  the  publica 
tion  of  "  Northern  Travel,"  which  was  issued 
simultaneously  in  New  York  by  G.  P.  Putnam, 
and  in  London  by  Sampson,  Low  &  Co. 

The  farthest  point  reached  by  Taylor  upon 
his  first  visit  to  Europe,  it  will  be  remembered, 
was  Rome.  Circumstances  constrained  him  to 
give  up  "  the  thrilling  hope,"  as  he  called  it, 
"of  climbing  Parnassus  and  drinking  from 
Castaly."  The  long  deferred  visit  to  Greece  he 
was  now  about  to  make.  He  left  Gotha  in  De 
cember  (1857)  and,  a  voyager  on  the  Ionian 
blast,  hailed  the  bright  clime  of  battle  and 
of  song.  He  touched  at  Corfu,  the  ancient 
Corcyra,  saw  the  smoke  leap  up  from  Ithaca  as 
the  returning  Odysseus  saw  it,  and  recalled  at 
Leucadia  his  own  verses  upon  "  The  Death  of 
Sappho,"  now  blended  with  Byron's  "  Leuca- 
dia's  far-projecting  rock  of  woe."  Their  vessel 
anchored  off  Missolonghi,  where  Byron's  stormy 
life  ceased,  and  at  Patras  Taylor's  feet  first 
pressed  the  "  haunted  holy  ground."  On  Christ 
mas  Day  his  eye  swept  the  Bay  of  Salamis,  and 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         113 

the  same  day  he  walked  up  the  street  of  Hermes 
and  in  the  street  of  ^Eolus  engaged  apartments 
for  the  winter  in  the  Hotel  d'Orient. 

Bayard  Taylor  knew  no  more  Greek  than 
John  Keats,  but  he  had  appropriated  with  kin 
dred  intuition  the  spirit  of  Greek  life  and  art. 
Every  moment  ran  itself  for  him  in  golden 
sands.  Delicious  indeed  was  the  first  breakfast 
in  Athens,  with  honey  from  Mt.  Hymettus. 
The  lovely  isles  of  Greece  took  his  reason  pris 
oner.  Excursions  were  made  to  Crete,  to  the 
Morea,  and  to  Thessaly ;  and  through  Mycenae 
and  Tiryns  he  rode  with  unknown  treasures 
under  his  feet.  He  began  the  study  of  modern 
Greek  and  learned  sufficient  to  answer  the  ne 
cessities  of  travel.  Ancient  Greek  he  did  not 
take  up  until  the  last  years  of  his  life.  William 
D.  Howells,  in  "  Harper's  Magazine  "  for  May, 
1894,  writes,  "  I  remember  that  I  met  him  once 
in  a  Cambridge  street  with  a  book  in  his  hand 
which  he  let  me  take  in  mine.  It  was  a  Greek 
author,  and  he  said  he  was  just  beginning  to 
read  the  language  at  fifty  ;  a  patriarchal  age  to 
me  of  the  early  thirties  !  I  suppose  I  intimated 
the  surprise  that  I  felt  at  his  taking  it  up  so  late 
in  the  day,  for  he  said,  with  charming  seriousness, 
4  Oh,  but  you  know,  I  expect  to  use  it  in  the 
other  world.'  Yes,  that  made  it  worth  while,  I 
consented  ;  but  was  he  sure  of  the  other  world  ? 


114  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

4  As  sure  as  I  am  of  this,'  he  said ;  and  I  have 
always  kept  the  impression  of  the  young  faith 
which  spoke  in  his  voice,  and  was  more  than  his 
words." 

Alfieri  in  his  delightful  Autobiography  tells 
how  he  began  Greek  at  forty-eight,  "  reading 
the  aspirates,  accents,  and  diphthongs  as  they 
are  written  and  not  as  they  are  stupidly  pro 
nounced  by  the  modern  Greeks,  who  have  an 
alphabet  of  five  iotas,  making  their  language 
a  continual  iotacism,  more  worthy  of  the  neigh 
ing  of  horses  than  the  most  harmonious  tongue 
in  the  world."  Taylor,  who  never  forgot  any 
thing,  found  his  Romaic  serviceable,  when,  in 
long  railroad  journeys,  he  refreshed  himself  by 
studying  ancient  Greek,  and  he  therefore  used 
the  modern  pronunciation  and  read  his  Homer, 
as  Alfieri  would  have  said,  with  "  vile  iotacism." 

A  journey  was  made  into  Crete,  of  which  Tay 
lor  records  nothing  memorable.  In  a  monastery 
among  the  ruins  of  Aptera,  where  he  spent  a 
night,  he  found  "  the  sacerdotal  fleas  were  as 
voracious  as  Capuchin  friars." 

He  reached  Corinth  at  the  time  of  the  great 
earthquake  of  February  21,  1858,  and  went 
south  into  Sparta,  where  he  was  entertained  by 
relatives  of  Dr.  Kalopothakes,  who  for  more 
than  thirty  years  has  taken  American  visitors 
to  Greece  under  his  hospitable  care. 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         115 

At  the  Piraeus  Taylor  saw  Mrs.  Black,  "  the 
Maid  of  Athens  "  to  whom  Byron  sang  in  impos 
sible  and  imgrammatical  Greek.  Mavrocorda- 
tos,  old  and  blind,  the  friend  and  ally  of  Byron, 
was  still  living.  Dr.  Schbll,  in  whose  arms 
Otfried  Miiller  died,  and  who  was  one  of  the 
physicians  who  attended  upon  Byron  at  Misso- 
longhi,  recounted  the  closing  scene  of  the  poet's 
life  to  Taylor,  while  Mr.  Finlay,  the  historian  of 
Mediaeval  Greece,  told  him  the  circumstances 
under  which  Byron  contracted  his  fatal  illness. 

From  Athens  (May  6th)  Taylor  departed  to 
Constantinople,  where  he  said  he  noticed  but 
three  changes  since  1852 :  that  Per  a  is  lighted 
with  gas,  that  the  hotels  have  raised  their  prices 
five  francs  a  day,  and  that  the  dogs  of  Stam- 
boul  no  longer  bark  at  Giaours.  He  returned 
by  the  Danube  to  Gotha,  where  Mrs.  Taylor 
was  established  in  her  former  home,  and  again 
set  out  on  the  third  of  June  for  Poland  and 
Russia,  returning  to  Gotha  at  the  end  of  July. 
His  only  child,  Lilian,  was  born  August  3, 1858. 

Before  the  first  of  October,  the  time  fixed 
by  Taylor  to  return  to  America,  occurred  the 
three  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  University 
of  Jena,  of  which  he  has  left  a  vivid  account  in 
"  At  Home  and  Abroad."  Here  at  the  Kneipe 
he  made  the  interesting  acquaintance  of  Fritz 
Renter,  and  tells  with  delight  of  his  volleys  of 
Low  German  fun. 


116  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

On  the  24th  of  October  the  Taylors  arrived 
at  Kennett  Square. 

Deep  in  his  heart  Bayard  Taylor  bore  a 
warm  affection  for  Chester  County,  the  place 
of  his  birth.  His  love  of  country  life  and  the 
ambition  to  furnish  a  generous  roof-tree  for 
his  family  seemed  now  about  to  be  gratified ; 
in  the  repose  of  his  own  home,  and  in  the  peace 
of  a  quiet  neighborhood,  he  could  develop  the 
poems  that  were  kindling  in  him  and  which 
he  believed  the  world  would  not  willingly  let 
die.  Upon  the  spot  which  he  had  chosen  for 
his  ideal  and  idyllic  home  the  ground  was  now 
broken,  and  while  the  work  went  forward 
Taylor  established  his  family  with  Richard  II. 
Stoddard  and  his  family  in  Brooklyn,  and  then 
departed  upon  another  lecturing  tour  in  which 
the  entire  winter  was  consumed.  When  sum 
mer  came  the  building  of  the  house  engaged  his 
attention.  At  this  time  he  was  writing  sketches 
of  travel  for  the  "  New  York  Mercury."  He 
had  purchased  the  stereotype  plates  of  his  works 
from  Mr.  Putnam  after  the  latter's  business  em 
barrassments,  and  Putnam  now  acted  for  him,  as 
for  Washington  Irving,  in  the  capacity  of  agent. 
To  his  books  of  travel  Taylor  added,  in  1859, 
"  Travels  in  Greece  and  Russia,  with  an  Excur 
sion  to  Crete,"  and  "  At  Home  and  Abroad  :  A 
Sketch  Book  of  Life,  Scenery  and  Men." 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.          117 

From  California,  whither  he  had  gone  on  a 
three  months'  lecturing  tour,  he  returned  de 
lighted  and  surprised  at  the  magic  growth  of 
the  country.  He  wrote  of  it :  — 

ON  LEAVING  CALIFORNIA. 

O  fair  young  land,  the  youngest,  fairest  far 

Of  which  our  world  can  boast,  — 
Whose  guardian  planet,  Evening's  silver  star, 

Illumes  thy  golden  coast,  — 

The  marble,  sleeping  in  thy  mountains  now, 

Shall  live  in  sculptures  rare ; 
Thy  native  oak  shall  crown  the  sage's  brow 

Thy  bay,  the  poet's  hair. 

Thy  tawny  hills  shall  bleed  their  purple  wine, 

Thy  valleys  yield  their  oil  ; 
And  Music,  with  her  eloquence  divine, 

Persuade  thy  sons  to  toil. 

Till  Hesper,  as  he  trims  his  silver  beam, 

No  happier  land  shall  see, 
And  earth  shall  find  her  old  Arcadian  dream 

Restored  again  in  thee  ! 

He  was  more  than  ever  weary  of  lecturing,  — 
two  hundred  and  seventy  lectures  he  had  given 
in  eighteen  months.  His  eagerness  to  occupy 
the  great  house  that  was  now  approaching  com 
pletion,  and  his  excitement  at  the  nearness  of 
that  period  when  time  and  peace  should  be  his 
to  walk  in  the  fields  of  his  heart  and  to  dedicate 
the  best  of  himself  to  poetic  endeavor,  increased 


118  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

his  irritation  at  the  uncongenial  tasks  that 
pressed  upon  him.  He  went  with  his  family 
to  the  old  homestead  until  May,  1860,  when 
they  moved  into  the  new  home  which  he  called 
"  Cedarcroft,"  and  with  him  he  took  his  father 
and  mother  and  his  two  sisters.  The  house  had 
cost  him  seventeen  thousand  dollars,  and  the 
stereotype  plates  of  his  books  had  cost  him  five 
thousand  more.  All  debts  were  paid  and  he 
seemed  about  to  enter  into  the  enjoyment  of 
a  rest  that  he  had  well  earned.  He  invited 
the  "  Return  of  the  Goddess  :  "  - 

"  Not  as  in  youth  with  steps  outspeeding  morn, 

And  cheeks  all  bright,  from  rapture  of  the  way, 
But  in  strange  mood,  half  cheerful,  half  forlorn, 
She  comes  to  me  to-day. 

"  Does  she  forget  the  trysts  we  used  to  keep, 

When  dead  leaves  rustled  on  autumnal  ground, 
Or  the  lone  garret,  whence  she  banished  sleep 
With  threats  of  silver  sound  ? 

"  Doe's  she  forget  how  shone  the  happy  eyes 

When  they  beheld  her,  how  the  eager  tongue 
Plied  its  swift  oar  through  wave-like  harmonies^ 
To  reach  her  where  she  sung  ? 

"  How  at  her  sacred  feet  I  cast  me  down  ? 

How  she  upraised  me  to  her  bosom  fair, 
And  from  her  garland  shred  the  first  light  crown 
That  ever  pressed  my  hair  ? 

**  Though  dust  is  on  the  leaves,  her  breath  will  bring 
Their  freshness  back :  why  lingers  she  so  long  ? 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         119 

The  pulseless  air  is  waiting  for  her  wing1, 
Dumb  with  unuttered  song. 

"  If  tender  doubt  delay  her  on  the  road 

Oh  let  her  haste  to  find  the  doubt  belied ! 
If  shame  for  love  unworthily  bestowed, 
That  shame  shall  melt  in  pride. 

"  If  she  but  smile,  the  crystal  calm  shall  break 

In  music,  sweeter  than  it  ever  gave, 
As  when  a  breeze  breathes  o'er  some  sleeping  lake, 
And  laughs  in  every  wave. 

"  The  ripples  of  awakened  song  shall  die 

Kissing  her  feet,  and  woo  her  not  in  vain 
Until,  as  once,  upon  her  breast  I  lie  — 
Pardoned,  and  loved  again  !  " 

"  When  I  build  a  house,"  Taylor  had  said  in 
his  youth,  "  I  shall  build  it  upon  the  ridge,  with 
a  high  steeple  from  the  top  of  which  I  can  see 
far  and  wide."  Cedarcroft  is  conspicuous  by  its 
lofty  tower  and  stands  upon  high  ground  about 
a  mile  north  of  the  built-up  portion  of  Kennett 
Square.  On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Kennett 
road,  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  domain  of 
Cedarcroft,  at  the  end  of  a  long  lane  of  tall  old 
cedars,  is  a  two-story  gray  house,  with  a  wooden 
porch  and  rustic  dooryard  which  was  the  home 
of  Taylor's  childhood.  Over  the  front  arch  of 
the  main  entrance  to  Cedarcroft  is  a  square  of 
white  stone  bearing  the  legend 


120  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

BAYARD  MARIE  TAYLOR. 

1859. 

In  the  rear  of  the  house  is  a  belt  of  cedars 
and  behind  these  rise  gigantic  forest  trees. 
Not  even  the  mighty  oaks  of  Charlecote  Park, 
where  young  Shakespeare  went  poaching,  Taylor 
was  fond  of  saying,  equal  these  secular  trees 
of  Cedarcroft.  There  is  but  one  open  space  in 
the  zone  of  trees,  where  the  sloping  sward  ends 
to  the  southeast,  at  a  distance  of  a  quarter  of  a 
mile,  in  an  artificial  pond.  Doubtless  it  was 
when  this  violet-starred  bank  flashed  upon  the 
inner  eye  which  is  the  bliss  of  solitude  that 
Taylor  wrote :  — 

"  The  violet  loves  a  sunny  bank, 

The  cowslip  loves  the  lea  ; 
The  scarlet  creeper  loves  the  elm, 
But  I  love  —  thee." 

No  one  can  ever  quite  know  what  manner  of 
man  Bayard  Taylor  was  who  has  not  known  him 
as  host  and  friend  at  "  Towered  Cedarcroft." 
All  the  future  circumstances  of  his  life  were 
indissolubly  knit  to  this  rural  home.  With 
what  affection  he  watched  its  rise,  with  what  joy 
he  witnessed  its  completion,  can  only  be  appre 
ciated  when  we  enter  into  Taylor's  ardent  nature 
and  realize  how  he  panted  for  recognition  and 
for  sympathy  and  how  dear  to  him  was  the 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.          121 

native  soil  of  his  loved  Chester  County.  Out  of 
that  soil  and  from  his  own  domain  he  dug  the 
clay  and  baked  the  bricks  to  build  these  massive 
walls.  His  was  the  primal  eldest  passion,  the 
love  of  the  earth  !  Like  Scott  at  Abbotsford  he 
desired  a  large  estate,  rich  acres  that  he  might 
call  his,  and  a  mansion,  baronial  in  its  extent, 
not  for  shallow  pride  and  ostentation,  but  that  it 
might  be  the  comfortable  home  of  his  kindred 
and  furnish  free-hearted  hospitality  to  his  friends. 
And  like  Scott  at  Abbotsford,  and  Burke  at 
Beaconsfield,  the  home  that  he  had  longed  for 
and  toiled  for  became  a  burden  and  a  weary 
weight,  prematurely  ending  his  overtaxed  life. 

The  great  entrance  door  opened  upon  a  broad 
hall  and  wide  oaken  stairway,  to  the  left  of  which, 
and  facing  south  and  west,  was  the  splendid 
library  room.  Here  Taylor  carried  forward  his 
literary  work.  Here  he  wrote  "  The  Poet's 
Journal,"  "  The  Picture  of  St.  John,"  and  "  Home 
Pastorals  ;  "  two  of  his  novels,  "  Joseph  and  his 
Friend,"  and  "  The  Story  of  Kennett,"  besides 
his  translation  of  "  Faust,"  and  vast  quantities 
of  miscellaneous  task-work.  Here  while  he  hur 
ried  the  busy  pen  he  smoked  his  narghile,  or 
his  cigar ;  and  here  he  entertained  his  friends, 
— poets,  journalists,  painters  —  to  whom  the  hall 
doors  swung  widely  open. 

Busts  of  Shakespeare,    Goethe,  Bryant,   and 


122  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

Virgil  overtopped  the  bookcases,  and  framed 
autographs  of  Thackeray  and  Tennyson  hung 
upon  the  walls.  The  great  house  with  its  broad 
acres  was  a  splendid  monument  to  the  unflagging 
zeal  of  its  humbly  proud  master,  who  but  fifteen 
years  before  had  gone  forth  a  poor  lad  to  see 
the  world,  and  to  win  the  recognition  that  now 
in  such  heaping  measure  was  already  his. 

Taylor's  rambles  in  England  had  impressed 
him  with  the  importance  of  adorning  the  physi 
cal  aspect  of  America  by  reproducing  within  it 
the  sweetness  and  beauty  of  the  domestic  and 
religious  spirit  of  the  older  civilization.  The 
welfare  of  the  future,  he  taught,  lies  in  the  wor 
ship  of  beauty.  He  knew  that  American  life 
needed  nothing  so  much  as  repose.  Donald 
Grant  Mitchell,  "  the  Horatian  classic  of  Ameri 
can  letters  "  as  William  Winter  has  so  happily 
called  him,  who  always  had  a  strong  fondness 
for  rural  life,  in  1869  edited  the  "  Hearth  and 
Home,"  for  which  Taylor  wrote  articles  upon 
landscape  gardening.  In  Mitchell's  home  at 
Edgewood  Taylor  drew  plans  for  the  projected 
house  at  Cedarcroft,  and  in  conversation  with 
Mitchell  agreed  that  while  the  old  halls  and 
manor  houses  of  England  are  the  best  models 
for  such  a  structure,  yet  our  brighter  sky  and 
southern  summer  require  a  lighter  and  more 
cheerful  aspect.  He  once  wrote  to  Mitchell, 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         123 

"  No  man  can  do  better  work  for  this  coun 
try  and  people  than  to  create  such  a  taste 
for  country  life  as  will  elevate  and  refine  the 
character  of  our  country  society."  He  enjoyed 
greatly  the  cultivation  of  his  acres.  A  new 
addition  to  his  garden  he  hailed  with  a  delight 
scarcely  less  keen  than  that  with  which  he 
greeted  the  idea  of  a  new  poem.  The  seed  of  a 
melon  from  the  Caspian  bought  at  Nijiii-Nov- 
gorod,  mixed  with  "  Mountain  Sweet "  and 
planted  in  Cedarcroft  garden,  produced  a  new 
and  capital  variety  of  watermelon.  Seed  of 
the  Latakia  (Laodicea)  tobacco  brought  from 
Egypt  was  planted  in  the  same  rich  soil,  and 
soon  the  "  great  vegetable "  was  thriving  at 
Cedarcroft. 

Miss  Laura  Eedden  (Howard  Glyndon) 
when  staying  at  Cedarcroft  asked  Bayard  Tay 
lor  why  he  had  created  a  pond  at  the  foot  of 
the  lawn.  Taylor  replied  that  it  was  useful  as 
well  as  ornamental  as  he  intended  to  drown  in 
it  all  his  disagreeable  neighbors.  And  indeed 
those  neighbors  were  not  few.  He  had  been 
but  a  short  time  at  Cedarcroft  before  he  found 
himself  estranged  from  his  old  associates.  The 
neighborhood  had  two  passionate  interests,  Abo 
lition  and  Temperance.  Across  the  county 
from  Kennett  to  Longwood  Meeting  were 
rious  stations  of  the  Underground  Rai}wi*s^J 

op 


124  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

W.  L.  Garrison,  Oliver  Johnson,  Wendell 
Phillips,  Starr  King,  Lucretia  Mott  and  all 
the  notable  abolitionists  had  traveled  the  Ken- 
nett  roads  and  had  spoken  at  yearly  meeting  at 
Longwood.  There  Anna  Dickinson  had  held 
aloft  her  white  arm  and  cried  that  she  would  be 
glad  and  proud  if  colored  blood  coursed  in  her 
veins.  The  restraint  and  outward  calm  of  the 
sober  Quaker  community  when  stirred  by  such 
sentiments  of  humanity  burst  into  lightning-like 
passion. 

The  fancy  of  total  abstinence  had  become 
with  them  a  vital  principle.  Without  it  there 
was  no  salvation.  Taylor  had  acquired  in  his 
travels  and  in  his  experience  in  cities  a  rational 
conception  of  life.  He  had  learned  that  in  ex 
ercise  and  not  in  repression  was  life's  chief  ben 
efit  and  virtue. 

His  "  Alongshore  "  letters  to  the  "  Tribune  " 
in  1875  contained  a  sensible  defense  of  nutri 
tious  and  wholesome  ale  over  limestone  water 
and  hayseed  tea.  He  was  a  fit  and  faithful 
student  of  Aristology,  which  Mortimer  Collins 
says  is  the  art  of  having  the  best  dinner  in 
the  best  way.  He  was  wont  to  describe  what 
he  chose  to  call  "  the  cooking  belt "  in  Amer 
ica,  which  continues  south  from  West  Chester, 
New  York,  through  Chester  County,  Pennsyl 
vania,  to  the  terrapin  and  canvas-back  of  the 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         125 

Maryland  market.  A  profuse  dinner  at  the 
northern  end  of  the  belt  Cooper  has  described  in 
"  The  Spy,"  when  the  procession  of  waiters  at 
the  Locusts  bring  on  "  whole  flocks  of  pigeons, 
certain  bevies  of  quails,  shoals  of  flat-fish,  bass, 
and  sundry  woodcock  ;  "  and  the  produce  of  the 
Chester  and  Lancaster  farms  have  given  a  tra 
ditional  and  enviable  reputation  to  the  West 
Chester  dinners  in  Pennsylvania. 

The  people  of  Kennett  were  offended  by  the 
manner  of  Bayard  Taylor's  life.  The  wine  upon 
his  table,  the  beer  and  whiskey  consigned  to 
him  from  Philadelphia  and  New  York  and  taken 
through  the  town  to  Cedarcroft  were  cause  of 
grave  concern  to  his  friends  and  acquaintances. 
They  remonstrated  with  him ;  and  he  resented 
the  remonstrance.  The  open,  honest  life  he 
lived  was  interpreted  by  them  as  hostility  and 
defiance.  A  physician  of  Kennett  censured  him 
for  his  manner  of  life.  Taylor  retaliated  by 
introducing  him  into  the  novel  of  "  Hannah 
Thurston  "  as  an  impertinent  temperance  crank. 
He  could  have  no  sympathy  or  patience  with  the 
narrow  intolerance  and  impertinence  that  would 
compel  others  to  live  the  life  of  the  community. 

They,  with  intemperance  of  speech,  assailed 
his  temperance  of  life,  and  malicious  falsehoods 
were  engendered  and  circulated,  and  found  their 
unclean  ways  into  journals,  and  led  to  petty  an-» 


126  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

noyance  and  to  ignominious  contests.  Cynical 
skeptics  who  wailed  the  loss  of  a  stomach  or  the 
incapacity  of  a  palate,  and  anaemic  ascetics  who 
diluted  their  anacreontics  with  water  and  cele 
brated  with  timid  voices  the  sparkle  of  Apolli- 
naris,  found  a  virtue  in  denouncing  Bayard  Tay 
lor's  "indulgence."  The  same  people  found 
Longfellow  guilty  of  a  serious  misdemeanor 
when  he  declared  that  the  best  thing  he  had 
found  in  England  was  Bass's  ale.  The  whole 
truth  is  that  Taylor  was  a  robust  man  of  vigor 
ous  appetite.  He  ate  heartily,  drank  suffi 
ciently,  and  worked  enormously. 

"  Earth-Life "  was  written  by  him  out  of 
sheer  weariness  of  the  perpetual  prate  that  he 
heard  about  him  of  "  soul-life "  and  "  spirit's 
mission."  The  voice  of  his  irritation  escapes 
again  in  "  In  My  Vineyard." 

"  The  secret  soul  of  sun  and  dew 

Not  vainly  she  distilleth, 
And  from  these  globes  of  pink  and  blue 

A  harmless  cup  she  filleth  : 
Who  loveth  her  may  take  delight 

In  what  for  him  she  dresses, 
Nor  find  in  cheerful  appetite 

The  portal  to  excesses. 

"  Yes,  ever  since  the  race  began 

To  press  the  vineyard's  juices, 
It  was  the  brute  within  the  man 

Defiled  their  nobler  uses ; 
But  they  who  take  from  order  joy, 

And  make  denial  duty, 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.          127 

Provoke  the  brute  they  should  destroy 
By  Freedom  and  by  Beauty ! ' ' 

He  wrote  to  his  old  friend,  J.  B.  Phillips, 
"There  are  no  such  quietly  impertinent  and 
meddlesome  old  Betties  in  domestic  matters  as 
some  old  male  Quakers."  He  withdrew  himself 
more  and  more  from  the  people  whose  simple 
lives  had  seemed  so  beautiful  when  seen  from 
the  thronged  pavements  of  New  York.  In  his 
correspondence  there  is  a  frequent  note  of 
discontent  and  disillusionment :  "I  live  in  a 
loneliness  which  is  rarely  pleasantly  broken " 
(October  31, 1870),  and  "Pennsylvania  is  vastly 
behind  Massachusetts,  but  that  is  partly  owing 
to  the  stagnation  of  Quakerism.  All  the  appre 
ciation  I  get  comes  from  New  England.  Penn 
sylvania  gives  me  nothing  but  sneers  and  abuse, 
and  I  am  a  little  tired  of  it." 

While  this  unfortunate  sentiment  existed  in 
Kennett,  Taylor  was  not  without  his  loyal 
friends.  When  he  occasionally  drove,  farmer- 
like,  into  West  Chester  in  a  dilapidated  old 
wagon  with  a  leisurely  horse,  and  smoking  a 
cigar  of  the  period,  tolerable  in  a  high  wind, 
there  were  many  faces  that  brightened  with 
pleasure  and  many  hands  that  were  extended 
in  hearty  greeting.  One  literary  friendship  de 
serves  more  particular  attention,  as  it  lent  much 
pleasure  to  Taylor's  life,  and  profited  him 


128  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

greatly  in  his  most  ambitious  work.  Twenty 
miles  away  in  an  adjacent  county,  in  the  beauti 
ful  region  of  Wallingford,  was  the  summer 
home  of  Dr.  Horace  Howard  Furness.  When 
Bayard  Taylor  was  engaged  upon  his  transla 
tion  of  "  Faust,"  and  was  puzzling  over  difficult 
tangles  that  other  translators  had  found  "  too 
intrinse  t'  unloose,"  he  was  wont  to  clear  his 
mind  by  a  visit  to  Lindenshade,  as  the  estate  at 
Wallingford  was  called,  and  a  talk  with  Dr.  Wil 
liam  H.  Furness,  for  whose  German  scholarship 
and  poet's  intuition  Taylor  had  the  highest  re 
spect  and  veneration.  The  days  at  Lindenshade 
were  golden  ones  in  Taylor's  calendar.  Almost 
the  only  literary  atmosphere  he  breathed  was 
at  the  Furness'  home.  Dr.  H.  H.  Furness  was 
beginning  those  studies  in  Shakespeare  which 
were  to  culminate  in  the  "  New  Variorum  edi 
tion,"  the  most  magnificent  monument  that  ever 
has  been  reared  to  the  memory  and  the  know 
ledge  of  Shakespeare.  His  sister,  Mrs.  Wister, 
was  engaged  upon  those  translations  of  Ger 
man  novels  that  have  been  more  popular  than 
any  other  books  rendered  from  German  into 
English. 

After  a  happy  summer's  day  spent  in  talk 
upon  the  second  part  of  "  Faust,"  Taylor  ad 
dressed  the  following  poem  (which  is  now  for 
the  first  time  printed)  to  his  friends. 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         129 


GRUSS  AN  LINDENSCHATTEN. 

Der  gliickliche  Tag  ist  voriiber, 
So  lange  ersehnt  und  gehofft : 

Wir  gestehen,  es  ware  uns  lieber 
Wenn  solche  genossen  wir  oft. 

Gesprache  im  Schatten  der  Linden, 
Gesang  und  den  perlenden  Wein  : 

Wo  Freuden  wie  diese  wir  finden, 
Fliesst  ruhig  das  Leben,  und  rein. 

Gemiith  harmonirt  mit  Gemiithe  ; 

Gedanken  entfalten  sich  frei  : 
Ja,  das  ist  die  einzige  Bliithe 

Die  duf tet  wenn  Sommer  vorbei ! 

So  lasst  uns  die  Stimmung  bewahren, 
Und  gb'nnt  uns  das  heitere  Gliick, 

In  diesem  und  komraenden  Jahren 
Zu  ruf  en  die  Tage  zuriick ! 

Die  Linden  die  summen  noch  immer 
Von  Stimmen  und  Liedern  und  Spiel ; 

Uber  Alles  verweilt  noch  ein  Schimmer, 
Es  waren  der  Freuden  so  viel ! 

Doch  wir,  ach  !  wir  sitzen  so  einsam, 
Und  od'  ist  das  griine  Gefild  : 

Geniesst  man  die  Stunden  gemeinsam, 
Da  giebt  's  ein  vollkommenes  Bild ! 

Es  sehnen  sich  nun  uns're  Baume 
Nach  den  Gasten,  die  fehlen  so  lang 

Die  Sale,  die  hausliche  Raume, 
Sie  lauschen  auf  Lust  und  Gesang. 


130  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

So  kommt,  eh'  verwelket  die  Matten  ! 

Dass  der  Tag  uns  bald  wieder  erschein', 
Wo  uns  Cedern,  nicht  Linden,  beschatten 

Im  f  rohlichen,  lieben  Verein  ! 1 

To  this  Dr.  W.  H.  Furness  replied:  — 
"  MY  DEAR  BAYARD  TAYLOR,  —  I  trust  you 
do  not  mean  to  claim  these  lovely  German  verses 
(I  know  no  measure  more  delicious  —  one  can 
afford  to  let  the  rhymes  take  care  of  themselves, 
come  or  stay  away  as  they  please  —  bless  me  ! 
what  a  long  parenthesis  this  is,  —  but  hold  on) 
as  original,  because  if  you  do  one  of  the  enclosed 
papers  will  prove  them  to  have  been  translated 
from  the  English.  I  grant  your  translation  im 
proves  upon  the  original,  but  still  it  is  too  literal 
to  be  anything  but  a  translation.  You  thought  it 
would  not  be  found  out,  but  I  read  your  verses 
over  only  once  or  twice  and  instantly  the  origi 
nal  came  to  me,  but  I  don't  know  whose  it  is,  or 
where  it  is  to  be  found."  (July  25,  1869.) 

With  this  playful  charge  of  plagiarism  Dr. 
Furness  sent  the  following  beautiful  translation 
of  Taylor's  German  verses. 

CEDARCROFT  TO  LINDENSHADE. 

The  day  that  we  longed  for  is  over. 

It  is  numbered  with  days  that  are  gone, 

How  blest  would  this  life  be,  if  often 
Such  calm  pleasant  days  would  return. 

1  The  poem  is  in  the  style  of  Kotzebue :  — 
"  Wir  sitzen  BO  frdhlich  beisamen." 


LECTUEEE   AND  LANDOWNER.         131 

We  sat  and  we  talked  'neath  the  lindens, 
We  had  poems  and  pearly  bright  wine,  — 

How  smoothly  life  passes  and  purely 
When  with  it  such  joys  we  entwine. 

Attuned  was  each  heart  to  the  others, 

Our  thoughts  and  our  fancies  flowed  free. 

Ah  !  these  are  the  blooms  that  are  fragrant 
When  summer  has  long  ceased  to  be. 

Then  let  us,  their  fragrance  preserving,  — 

The  seasons  are  flying  so  fast,  — 
In  this  and  in  all  coming  summers 

Call  back  the  bright  days  that  are  past. 

Still,  still  do  they  whisper,  those  Lindens, 

Of  voices  and  music  and  play, 
Over  all  there  still  lingers  a  shimmer, 

So  full  was  the  joy  of  that  day. 

But  we,  ah !  we  sit  now  so  lonely, 

And  bare  are  the  green  fields  around. 
Only  when  we  are  merry  together, 

Only  then  does  enjoyment  abound. 

These  old  trees  of  ours  now  long  for 

The  guests  whom  they  so  long  have  missed ; 

The  dear  household  places,  —  the  parlor 
Awaits  for  the  song  and  the  jest. 

So  come,  let  the  day  be  repeated, 

Ere  the  glories  of  summer  shall  fade, 
Where  not  Lindens  but  evergreen  Cedars 

Shall  cover  us  all  with  their  shade. 

Taylor  never  shut  himself  up  to  write.     His 
library  doors  were  always  open,  for  the  presence 


132  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

of  his  guests  or  of  the  members  of  the  house 
hold  did  not  disturb  him  in  his  work.  And 
those  guests  were  numerous.  Often  he  cast 
aside  the  pen  to  greet  a  chance  caller,  or  to 
welcome  in  a  friend  of  fame  in  art  or  letters. 
His  generous  hospitality  was  freely  given  to 
every  visitor  ;  he  was  the  best  conditioned  and 
unwearied  spirit  in  doing  courtesies.  When 
Cedarcroft  was  finished  in  the  summer  of  1860, 
Taylor  gave  a  housewarming,  and  he  and  Rich 
ard  Henry  Stoddard  wrote  a  play,  as  Stoddard 
said,  "  for  the  delectation  of  the  good,  honest 
country  folk,  who  had  no  idea  that  they  wit 
nessed  what  the  world's  people  would  call  a 
theatrical  performance."  The  bill  of  the  per 
formance,  set  up  with  flaming  head-lines,  read  :  — 

CEDARCROFT  THEATRE! 

GREAT  ATTRACTION  ! 

Saturday,  August  18,  1860, 

will  be  presented  for  the  first  time  a 

NEW  COMEDY 

In  One  Act,  —  entitled 

LOVE    AT    A    HOTEL! 

By  the  World-Renowned  Dramatic  Authors, 

MR.  B.  T.  CEDARCROFT 

and 
MR.  R.  H.  S.  CUSTOMHOUSE. 


LECTURER  AND  LANDOWNER.         133 

"  The  '  comedy '  was  a  great  success,"  said 
Stoddard,  "  and  deserved  to  be  (before  a  coun 
try  audience),  for  there  was  not  an  original 
scene,  situation,  thought,  or  word  in  it."  1 

Whittier  and  Lowell  had  visited  Taylor  at 
the  old  farm  at  Kennett.  Emerson,  Curtis, 
Boker,  Stedman,  Aldrich,  Greeley,  and  many 
artists  and  authors  came  to  Cedarcroft.  When 
E.  C.  Stedman  was  Taylor's  guest  in  June,  1865, 
a  picnic  on  the  Brandywine  was  planned.  The 
feast  was  rudely  disturbed  by  the  advance  of 
a  herd  of  cattle,  one  hundred  strong,  who  de 
ployed  in  line  of  battle,  and  threatened  the  se 
curity  of  the  small  company.  "  Mr.  Stedman, 
in  great  glee,  flung  himself  upon  the  back  of  a 
fine  short-horned  steer,  and  Bayard  Taylor,  like 
a  sacrificial  priest,  took  hold  of  one  of  the  horns, 
and,  swinging  his  staff,  led  the  astonished  animal 
and  his  rider  about  in  triumphal  procession."  2 

Taylor  has  celebrated  this  incident  in  his 
sonnet  to  E.  C.  S.,  Christmas,  1865  :  — 

"  When  days  were  long,  and  o'er  that  farm  of  mine, 
Green  Cedarcroft,  the  summer  breezes  blew, 
And  from  the  walnut  shadows  I  and  you, 

Dear  Edmund,  saw  the  red  lawn-roses  shine, 

Or  followed  our  idyllic  Brandywine 

Through  meadows  flecked  with  many  a  flowery  hue, 
To  where  with  wild  Arcadian  pomp  I  drew 

Tour  Bacchic  march  among  the  startled  kine, 

1  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1879. 

2  Life  and  Letters,  p.  432. 


134  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

You  gave  me,  linked  with  old  Maeonides, 
Your  loving-  sonnet,  —  record  dear  and  true 
Of  days  as  dear :   and  now,  when  suns  are  brief, 

And  Christmas  snows  are  on  the  naked  trees, 
I  give  you  this  —  a  withered  winter  leaf, 
Yet  with  your  blossom  from  one  root  it  grew." 

NOTE. — Fire  damaged  apart  of  Cedarcroft  in  Christmas 
week,  1894.  An  addition  that  had  been  built  to  the  house 
was  destroyed,  and  the  woodwork  of  the  library  was  scorched 
and  burnt. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

NOVEL   WETTING. 

1861-1866. 

IT  is  a  commonplace  to  speak  of  Bohemian- 
ism  in  New  York  about  1860.  Yet  to  speak 
accurately,  there  were  no  Bohemians  in  New 
York.  There  was  much  convivial  and  uncon 
ventional  life,  there  were  those  who  were  care 
less  what  they  did  to  spite  the  bourgeois  world, 
but  there  was  no  real  Bohemianism.  The  poets 
and  journalists,  though  depending  on  small  and 
precarious  incomes,  had  washerwomen  and  lodg 
ings,  and  generally  paid  their  debts,  notwith 
standing  that  at  times  they  were  detained  by 
their  landlady  for  indifference  to  rent-day,  and 
sometimes  locked  up  in  Jefferson  Market  for 
pranks  that  are  now  popularly  believed  to  be 
performed  by  college  sub-freshmen  only.  To 
appreciate  what  Bayard  Taylor  did,  it  is  neces 
sary  to  understand  the  background  of  his  life 
in  New  York,  and  to  know  the  sort  of  thing 
that  was  going  on.  The  conditions  of  author 
ship  had  greatly  changed  from  what  they  were 


136  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

when  he  first  came  to  the  city.  The  Knicker 
bocker  school  had  faded  out.  A  brilliant  circle 
of  young  writers  of  erratic  lustre  and  small 
reverence  had  appeared.  Washington  Irving, 
"  the  first  literary  ambassador  from  the  New 
World  to  the  Old,"  died  in  1859 ;  and  in  the 
same  year  death  claimed  in  this  country  Rufus 
Choate  and  William  Hickling  Prescott,  and  in 
England  Leigh  Hunt,  Thomas  De  Quincey  and 
Lord  Macaulay.  In  that  year  "  The  Knicker 
bocker  Magazine,"  the  tower  of  literary  strength 
in  New  York,  came  to  an  end ;  and  N.  P. 
Willis  published  his  last  book,  "  The  Convales 
cent."  The  cessation  of  "  The  Knickerbocker  " 
and  of  "  Putnam's  Magazine  "  marked  the  pass 
ing  of  the  old  regime. 

In  1857  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  "  was  begun 
in  Boston.  Holmes  named  it  ("not  because 
it  was  a  notion "),  Lowell  became  its  editor- 
in-chief,  and  all  the  well-known  writers  of  the 
country  were  among  its  contributors.  "  The 
Saturday  Press  "  was  started  in  New  York,  Oc 
tober  23,  1858,  by  Henry  Clapp,  Jr.,  a  cynical 
journalist  who  could  throw  more  bitterness  into 
a  single  sentence  than  any  man  of  his  period. 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  was  associate  editor, 
and  Fitz- James  O'Brien  was  dramatic  editor. 
In  December,  1860,  the  publication  was  discon 
tinued,  but  after  some  years  it  was  resumed 


NOVEL   WRITING.  137 

with  the  appropriate  explanation :  "  This  paper 
was  suspended  for  lack  of  funds ;  it  is  now 
recommenced  for  the  same  reason"  John 
Brougham  had  begun  "  The  Lantern,"  an  illus 
trated  comic  paper,  in  1852.  "  Mrs.  Grundy," 
commenced  by  A.  L.  Carrol  and  edited  by 
Charles  Dawson  Shanly,  and  "Vanity  Fair," 
edited  by  Frank  Wood,  followed  the  "  Sat 
urday  Press."  Among  the  contributors  to  these 
vivacious  and  reckless  journals  were  E.  G.  P. 
Wilkins,  W.  L.  Symonds,  Henry  Neill,  N.  G. 
Shepherd,  C.  D.  Shanly,  C.  I.  Gardette, 
Fitz-Hugh  Ludlow,  C.  F.  Browne  (Artemus 
Ward),  George  Arnold,  Fitz- James  O'Brien, 
E.  C.  Stedman,  T.  B.  Aldrich,  and  William 
Winter. 

In  New  England,  upon  the  "  Atlantic 
Monthly,"  there  was  culture  and  tradition, 
order  and  decorum.  Among  the  contributors 
to  the  New  York  papers  there  was  fever  and 
recklessness,  gayety  and  melancholy.  No  re 
spect  was  shown  by  the  younger  writers  for 
"the  various  camphorated  figure-heads  which 
were  then  an  incubus  upon  American  letters." 

John  Brougham  gave  weekly  dinners  at 
Windust's,  near  the  original  Park  Theatre, 
which  were  attended  by  the  Aladdins  who 
"  trimmed  the  wick  of  the  '  Lantern/  '  The 
staff  of  "  Vanity  Fair  "  met  on  Fridays  in  the 


138  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

old  editorial  rooms,  113  Nassau  Street,  and 
drank,  and  smoked,  and  discussed  the  next 
issue.  The  general  gathering  place  of  the  clan, 
however,  was  in  PfafFs  beer  cellar  in  Broadway. 
If  the  New  England  authors,  serene  upon  their 
transcendental  heights,  taught  the  virtues  of 
plain  living  and  high  thinking,  the  frequenters 
of  Pfaff's  believed  as  potently  in  high  thinking 
and  hard  drinking.  George  Arnold,  the  lau 
reate  of  the  long  table  in  this  dingy  cellar,  is 
authority  for  it  that 

"  We  were  all  very  merry  at  Pfaff's." 

Hither  came  Walt  Whitman,  whose  cause 
the  "  Saturday  Press  "  had  taken  up  with  its 
accustomed  vigor,  looking  like  the  Phidian  Jove. 
Here  too  came  O'Brien,  disfigured  by  pugilism, 
a  gypsy  of  letters  whose  long  periods  of  idleness 
were  broken  by  such  sudden  raptures  of  creation 
as  "  A  Fallen  Star  "  and  "  The  Diamond  Lens ; " 
"  Fitz  -  Gammon  O'Bouncer  "  William  North 
styled  him.  Here  came  "  Ned  "  Wilkins,  feed 
ing  on  Montaigne,  as  George  Arnold  fed  upon 
Balzac ;  and  the  cynical  Clapp,  who  originated 
the  saying,  "  A  self-made  man,  yes,  and  worships 
his  creator ; "  and  Shepherd,  who  wrote  the 
"  Roll  Call,"  and  Shanly,  who  should  be  re 
membered  for  his  "  Rifleman,  shoot  me  a  fancy 
shot." 


NOVEL   WRITING.  139 

Mr.  William  D.  Howells  has  recently  related 
the  impression  made  upon  him  by  a  visit  to 
Pfaff's  in  1860  —  "  At  one  moment  of  the  orgy, 
which  went  but  slowly  for  an  orgy,  we  were 
joined  by  some  belated  Bohemians  whom  the 
others  made  a  great  clamor  over ;  I  was  given  to 
understand  they  were  just  recovered  from  a 
fearful  debauch;  their  locks  were  still  damp 
from  the  wet  towels  used  to  restore  them,  and 
their  eyes  were  very  frenzied.  I  was  presented 
to  these  types,  who  neither  said  nor  did  anything 
worthy  of  their  awful  appearance,  but  dropped 
into  seats  at  the  table,  and  ate  of  the  supper 
with  an  appetite  that  seemed  poor.  I  stayed, 
hoping  vainly  for  worse  things  till  eleven  o'clock, 
and  then  I  rose  and  took  my  leave  of  a  literary 
condition  that  had  distinctly  disappointed  me." 

Taylor,  as  a  companion  of  Willis,  who  was 
styled  by  "Vanity  Fair"  the  "pink  of  the 
press,"  was  not  of  the  "  Bohemian  "  crew,  al 
though  he  was  an  occasional  visitor  at  Pfaff's. 
The  "  Albion  "  had  published  a  truculent  article 
upon  him,  and  "  Vanity  Fair  "  launched  at  him 
mild  squibs.  Although  Taylor  held  himself 
aloof  from  the  noisy  midnight  life,  he  had 
many  valued  friends  in  the  "snapping  turtle 
press,"  and  he  was  in  no  small  degree  influenced 
by  the  life  that  was  about  him.  Without  doubt 
he  was  saved  from  the  experience  that  so  many 


140  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

of  the  young  journalists  of  the  great  city  knew, 
by  his  foreign  travel  and  his  touch  upon  Euro 
pean  culture  and  Oriental  calm. 

Stoddard,  Taylor  and  O'Brien  were  frequently 
amiable  rivals  in  the  rapid  making  of  burlesque 
rhymes.  Stoddard  in  his  reminiscences  thus  re 
calls  these  nights  of  literary  frolic.  "  We  sat 
around  a  table  and  whenever  the  whim  seized 
us,  which  was  often  enough,  we  each  wrote  down 
themes  on  little  pieces  of  paper,  and  putting 
them  into  a  hat  or  box  we  drew  out  one  at  ran 
dom,  and  then  scribbled  away  for  dear  life.  We 
put  no  restriction  upon  ourselves :  we  could  be 
grave  or  gay,  or  idiotic  even  ;  but  we  must  be 
rapid,  for  half  the  fun  was  in  noting  who  first 
sang  out,  '  Finished/  It  was  a  neck  and  neck 
race  between  Bayard  Taylor  and  Fitz-James 
O'Brien,  who  divided  the  honors  pretty  equally, 
and  whose  verses,  I  am  compelled  to  admit,  were 
generally  better  than  my  own.  Bayard  Taylor 
was  very  dexterous  in  seizing  the  salient  points  of 
the  poets  we  girded  at,  and  was  as  happy  as  a 
child  when  his  burlesques  were  successful.  He 
reminded  me,  I  once  told  him,  of  Katerfelto 


' '  With  his  hair  on  end 
At  his  own  wonders.' 


He  blushed,  laughed,  and  admitted  that  his  clev 
erness   pleased  him,  and  he  was   glad  that   it 


NOVEL   WEITING.  141 

pleased  us  also.  '  It  is  good  sport,'  he  remarked ; 
4  but  poetry,  —  that  is  very  different.'  " 

A  permanent  friendship,  too,  was  formed  with 
William  Winter,  for  whose  complete  mastery  of 
the  eighteenth  century  manner  Bayard  Taylor 
had  the  highest  respect  and  admiration.  In 
1876,  when  Taylor  was  occupied  with  the  Cen 
tennial  Ode,  he  was  requested  to  prepare  a  poem 
for  the  Society  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
Unable  to  discharge  both  tasks  he  transferred 
the  latter  to  Winter,  who  read  at  the  Academy 
of  Music  in  Philadelphia,  June  6, 1876,  his  com 
memorative  poem,  "  The  Voice  of  the  Silence." 

A  small  circle  of  writers  still  eddied  about 
Willis  and  Morris  and  the  "  Home  Journal ; " 
the  "  Bohemians  "  foregathered  at  Pfaff's,  and 
the  "  respectables,"  the  oldest  and  strongest  men 
in  art  and  letters,  belonged  to  the  Century  Associ 
ation  which,  in  1846,  had  grown  out  of  the  Sketch 
Club  and  the  Column  Club.  Washington  Irving 
named  the  "Century,"  and  S.  F.  B.  Morse, 
W.  J.  Hoppin,  A.  B.  Durand,  William  Cullen 
Bryant,  Henry  T.  Tuckerman,  G.  C.  Verplanck, 
Gouverneur  Kemble  and  John  F.  Kensett  were 
members.  Bayard  Taylor  was  made  a  centurion 
in  1851.  Another  semi  -  literary  organization 
was  the  Press  Club,  which  originated  in  1852 
while  Kossuth  was  in  America ;  Henry  W^ard 
Beecher  was  its  secretary,  and  Charles  A.  Dana, 


142  BAYABD  TAYLOR. 

Henry  J.  Raymond,  John  Bigelow  and  Parke 
Godwin  were  among  its  members.  The  club 
dined  at  stated  occasions  at  the  Astor  House, 
and  Bayard  Taylor  was  occasionally  of  the  party. 

From  first  to  last  Taylor's  relations  were  clos 
est  with  the  "  Tribune  "  set.  He  was  one  of  the 
earliest  stockholders  of  the  paper  and  served  it 
in  one  capacity  or  another  from  his  first  entrance 
into  New  York  until  his  death.  Horace  Greeley, 
a  few  weeks  before  January  1,  1849,  invited 
certain  persons  employed  in  leading  positions  in 
the  several  departments  of  the  paper  to  join  him 
as  co-partners.  Bayard  Taylor  and  Charles  A. 
Dana  were  among  those  who  availed  themselves 
of  this  opportunity.  Among  Taylor's  associ 
ates  on  the  Tribune  were  Sydney  Howard  Gay, 
Charles  T.  Congdon,  Edward  H.  House,  and 
William  H.  Fry  (who  came  from  Philadelphia). 
Taylor  had  reverential  cordiality  for  George  Rip- 
ley  and  was  intimate  with  Charles  A.  Dana, 
George  William  Curtis  and  James  S.  Pike.  He 
knew  A.  D.  Richardson  and  George  W.  Smalley, 
but  not  well.  He  had  high  regard  for  the  liter 
ary  judgment  of  Col.  John  Hay,  and  the  varied 
experiences  of  both  had  given  them  abundant 
interests  in  common. 

Such  was  the  literary  and  social  life  of  New 
York  when  Bayard  Taylor  was  scurrying  across 
the  continent  on  a  lecturing  tour  or  peacefully 


NOVEL   WRITING.  143 

cultivating  his  strawberries,  figs  and  pomegran 
ates  at  Cedarcroft. 

Meanwhile  a  portentous  shadow  was  falling 
across  the  country.  The  terrible  urgency  of 
civil  war,  and  an  immense  physical  activity,  were 
temporarily  to  retire  art,  and  to  direct  genius 
to  more  immediate  and  practical  ends.  The 
best  years  of  the  young  writers  of  the  "  Saturday 
Press  "  and  the  other  Bohemian  publications  of 
New  York  were  absorbed  and  consumed  in  the 
wild  years  of  the  Rebellion.  When  the  war  was 
over,  a  certain  phase  of  literary  history  had 
passed  forever  from  America.  At  the  outbreak 
of  the  struggle  there  was  an  instant  stagnation 
in  literature.  Publishers  were  fearful,  authors 
were  enlisting.  Repose  is  essential  to  perma 
nent  beauty.  Great  works  ripen  slowly.  The 
awful  pageantry  of  civil  strife  for  those  who  felt 
the  sharpness  of  the  quarrel  had  no  romantic 
glamour. 

During  1860  Bayard  Taylor  had  published  a 
revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  "  Cyclopedia 
of  Modern  Travel,"  and  continued  his  letters  of 
travel  to  the  "  Tribune."  He  contributed  to  the 
"  Mercury  "  various  papers  upon  California,  and 
translated  the  article  upon  Martin  Luther  from 
Gustav  Freytag's  "  Pictures  of  Life  in  Germany 
during  the  last  Four  Hundred  Years."  His 
German  friends,  the  Buflebs,  visited  Cedarcroft, 


144  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

and  with  them  Taylor  made  a  trip  to  the  White 
Mountains  and  up  the  Saguenay. 

As  the  Presidential  election  of  1860  drew  near 
the  political  excitement  ran  high.  At  a  mass 
meeting  of  Republicans  held  upon  the  old  battle 
field  of  the  Brandywine,  Bayard  Taylor  presided 
and  said  :  — 

"It  is  a  national,  not  a  party  struggle  in 
which  we  are  engaged  ;  for  the  question  whether 
our  national  policy  shall  or  shall  not  be  based 
upon  the  recognition  of  the  natural  rights  of 
man  —  upon  the  rights  of  labor,  the  untrammeled 
freedom  of  thought  and  speech  —  upon  those 
principles,  in  fact,  on  which  the  progress  of  the 
race  depends  —  concerns  not  merely  a  party,  but 
all  mankind." 

In  the  middle  of  October  Taylor  resumed 
lecturing,  and  soon  had  reason  to  know  the  in 
tense  party  feeling  that  existed  in  the  country. 
We  were  then  in  what  Harriet  Martineau  called 
"  our  martyr  age,"  when  eloquence  was  dirt 
cheap,  and  the  eloquent  speakers  often  suffered 
seriously  for  their  advocacy  of  unpopular  prin 
ciples.  A  mob  arose  against  George  William 
Curtis  in  Philadelphia  as  against  Garrison  in 
Boston.  A  storm  of  popular  indignation  burst 
in  Brooklyn  upon  Bayard  Taylor  for  his  defense 
of  the  course  taken  by  Curtis.  Girt  about  by 
policemen  Taylor  delivered  his  lecture  in  Phila- 


NOVEL   WRITING.  145 

delphia  the  following  week.  A  lecture  bureau 
in  the  South  canceled  its  engagements  with  him 
after  this  open  definition  of  his  position,  and 
a  wordy  war  followed  in  which  Taylor  had 
distinctly  the  best  of  the  argument.  With  the 
actual  burst  of  war  he  sold  a  share  of  "  Tribune  " 
stock  to  enable  his  youngest  brother,  Frederick, 
to  enlist  in  the  army  ;  this  he  said  was  his  con 
tribution  toward  putting  down  the  Rebellion. 
In  the  spring  of  1861  he  abandoned  his  New 
York  home  and  moved  all  his  possessions  to 
Cedarcroft.  In  May  he  sailed  with  his  wife  for 
Germany,  and  proceeded  to  Gotha,  whence  he 
made  an  excursion  into  the  Franconian  moun 
tains.  Numerous  descriptive  letters  were  sent 
to  the  "  Tribune "  and  to  the  "  Independent." 
He  returned  to  New  York  in  August  and  went 
at  once  to  Cedarcroft,  where  he  wrote  a  number 
of  magazine  articles,  notably  one  upon  Hebel, 
"  the  German  Burns,"  and  a  story,  "The  Haunted 
Shanty."  His  lecture  upon  "  The  American 
People  in  their  Social  and  Political  Aspects " 
was  prepared  at  this  time.  The  year  closed 
with  another  lecturing  tour  in  the  northeast 
which  was  neither  extensive  nor  profitable,  for, 
as  Taylor  wrote,  "  These  war  times  are  hard  on 
authors;  the  sword  of  Mars  chops  in  two  the 
strings  of  Apollo's  lyre  !  " 

Early  in  March,  1862,  Taylor  was  in  Washing- 


146  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

ton  as  war  correspondent  of  the  "  Tribune,"  and 
before  the  end  of  the  month  it  was  proposed 
that  he  should  accompany  Simon  Cameron,  the 
newly  appointed  minister  to  Russia,  as  Secretary 
of  the  Legation.  Here  was  an  opportunity  to 
accomplish  under  Russian  protection  that  ex 
ploration  of  Central  Asia  which  he  had  so  long 
wished  to  make.  The  salary,  too,  was  sufficient 
to  relieve  him  from  the  hated  drudgery  of  lec 
turing.  He  was  assured  that  Cameron  would 
return  in  the  fall,  leaving  him  acting  charge 
d'affaires,  and  that  it  was  quite  probable  that 
the  ministry  itself  would  ultimately  be  his.  He 
sailed  on  the  Persia  in  May,  1862,  with  Mr. 
Cameron's  party.  For  a  time  Bayard  Taylor 
and  his  family  were  the  guests  in  Paris  of  James 
Lorimer  Graham,  a  fellow-member  of  the  Cen 
tury  Club.  They  then  went  on  to  Gotha, 
whence  Taylor  continued  with  Simon  Cameron 
to  St.  Petersburg. 

During  the  remainder  of  the  year  much  writ 
ing  was  done  :  a  Quaker  story,  "  Friend  Eli's 
Daughter,"  a  simple  tale  of  Philadelphia  and 
the  valley  of  the  Neshaminy,  and  several  sketches 
of  travel  were  sent  to  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly  ;  " 
a  poem  on  the  one  thousandth  anniversary  of  the 
Russian  Empire  pleased  Prince  Gortschakoff, 
by  whom  it  was  shown  to  the  Emperor,  who  sent 
word  to  Bayard  Taylor  that  he  was  touched  and 


NOVEL   WRITING.  147 

delighted.  Two  excursions  taken  in  July  and 
at  the  close  of  August  furnished  material  for 
"  Atlantic  "  papers.  The  first  was  "  A  Cruise  on 
Lake  Ladoga  ;  "  Taylor  was  the  first  American 
who  had  visited  the  northern  portion  of  the  lake. 
The  other,  the  account  of  which  was  published 
in  1864  under  the  title  "  Between  Europe  and 
Asia,"  was  to  the  Nijni-Novgorod  fair,  where  he 
witnessed  a  remarkable  performance  of  Macbeth 
by  Ira  Aldridge,  the  Baltimore  mulatto  who  was 
called  the  "  African  Roscius,"  and  who  was  a 
pupil  of  Edmund  Kean.  "  A  mulatto  Macbeth 
in  a  Russian  theatre  with  a  Persian  and  Tartar 
audience !  "  To  the  Tartar  camp  on  the  hill 
of  Novgorod,  Taylor  went  for  an  experimental 
draught  of  koumiss,  the  fermented  milk  of 
mares.  "  Having  drunk  palm-wine  in  India, 
samshoo  in  China,  saki  in  Japan,  pulque  in 
Mexico,  bouza  in  Egypt,  mead  in  Scandinavia, 
ale  in  England,  bock-bier  in  Germany,  mastic  in 
Greece,  calabogus  in  Newfoundland,  and  —  soda- 
water  in  the  United  States,  I  desired  to  complete 
the  bibulous  cosmos  in  which  koumiss  was  still 
lacking."  ("  By- Ways  of  Europe,"  p.  79.)  The 
taste,  Taylor  declared,  was  that  of  "  aged  butter 
milk  mixed  with  ammonia."  The  subject  of  a 
curious  Russian  story,  "  Beauty  and  the  Beast," 
that  was  published  in  1865,  was  also  at  this  time 
obtained. 


148  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

Simon  Cameron  left  Russia  in  September, 
and  Taylor  continued  as  charge  d'affaires  until 
May  7,  1863,  when  Cassius  M.  Clay,  the  new 
minister,  was  received  by  the  Emperor.  One 
month  after  the  responsibility  of  the  Russian 
Legation  had  been  fastened  upon  Bayard  Taylor 
he  sent  a  dispatch  to  the  Department  of  State, 
which  is  quoted  here  as  illustrating  the  character 
of  his  diplomatic  correspondence,  and  also  the 
regard  in  which  he  was  held  at  the  Russian 
court :  — 

MR.    TAYLOR   TO   MR.    SEWARD. 

LEGATION  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 
ST.  PETERSBURG,  October  29,  1862. 

SIR,  —  I  have  the  honor  to  report  to  you  that, 
immediately  after  the  receipt  of  your  dispatch 
No.  14,  of  September  26,  I  applied  for  an  inter 
view  with  Prince  Gortchacow,  for  the  purpose 
of  deliverins:  into  his  hands  the  letter  of  his  ex- 

O 

cellency  the  President  to  his  Imperial  Majesty 
Alexander  II.  My  request  was  at  once  granted, 
and  an  early  hour  the  next  day  was  appointed ; 
but  the  Prince  having  in  the  mean  time  been 
summoned  to  the  town  of  Gatschina,  some  thirty 
miles  from  here,  to  confer  with  the  Emperor, 
the  interview  was  postponed  until  to-day. 

After  having  received  the  President's  letter, 
which  he  promised  to  present  to  his  Imperial 


NOVEL    WRITING.  149 

Majesty  without  delay,  the  Prince  entered  upon 
a  conversation  concerning  American  affairs, 
which  I  deem  so  important  that  I  hasten  to  re 
port  it,  while  his  expressions  are  yet  fresh  in  my 
mind,  and  can  be  communicated  to  you  with  the 
greatest  possible  exactness. 

He  began  by  stating  in  the  strongest  terms 
his  concern  at  the  course  which  events  are  tak 
ing  in  the  United  States.  "Your  situation," 
said  he,  "  is  getting  worse  and  worse.  The 
chances  of  preserving  the  Union  are  growing 
more  and  more  desperate.  Can  nothing  be 
done  to  stop  this  dreadful  war  ?  Can  you  find 
no  basis  of  arrangement  before  your  strength  is 
so  exhausted  that  you  must  lose,  for  many  years 
to  come,  your  position  in  the  world  ?  "  I  an 
swered  that  the  critical  period  in  the  fortunes 
of  the  war  seemed  now  to  be  passed  ;  our  arms 
were  again  victorious,  and,  could  the  military 
strength  of  the  rebellion  be  once  fairly  broken, 
it  would  be  almost  impossible  for  it  to  maintain 
itself  longer.  "It  is  not  that  alone,"  said  he, 
"  but  the  fury  that  seems  to  possess  both  sides, 
—  the  growth  of  enmities  which  are  making  the 
gulf  continually  wider  between  the  two  sections. 
The  hope  of  their  reunion  is  growing  less  and 
less,  and  I  wish  you  to  impress  upon  your  gov 
ernment  that  the  separation,  which  I  fear  must 
come,  will  be  considered  by  Russia  as  one  of  the 
greatest  possible  misfortunes." 


150  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  To  loyal  Americans,"  I  answered,  "  separa 
tion  seems  nothing  less  than  national  ruin,  and, 
precisely  for  this  reason,  ther  j  can  be  no  nego 
tiations  at  present  with  the  rebel  authorities. 
They  would  listen  to  no  terms  which  did  not  in 
clude  separation,  and  hence  the  War  is  still  a 
terrible  necessity.  I  have  hopes,  however,  that 
a  change  may  occur  before  the  term  of  grace 
allowed  by  the  President's  proclamation  expires. 
Have  you  noticed  that  the  State  of  North  Caro 
lina  is  already  taking  some  action  on  the  sub 
ject?  "  "  Yes,"  said  he,  "  I  have  seen  it.  ... 
Russia  alone  has  stood  by  you  from  the  first, 
and  will  continue  to  stand  by  you.  We  are 
very,  very  anxious  that  some  means  shall  be 
adopted,  —  that  any  course  should  be  pursued 
which  will  prevent  the  division  that  now  seems 
inevitable.  One  separation  will  be  followed 
by  another ;  you  will  break  into  fragments. 
.  .  .  You  know  the  sentiments  of  Russia,"  the 
Prince  exclaimed  with  great  earnestness.  "  We 
desire  above  all  things  the  maintenance  of  the 
American  Union,  as  one  indivisible  nation. 
We  cannot  take  any  part  more  than  we  have 
done.  We  have  no  hostility  to  the  Southern 
people.  Russia  has  declared  her  position  and 
will  maintain  it.  There  will  be  no  proposals  for 
intervention.  We  believe  that  intervention  could 
do  no  good  at  present.  Proposals  will  be  made 


NOVEL    WEITING.  151 

to  Russia  to  join  in  some  plan  of  interference. 
She  will  refuse  any  invitation  of  the  kind. 
Russia  will  occupy  the  same  ground  as  at  the 
beginning  of  the  struggle.  You  may  rely  upon 
it,  she  will  not  change.  But  we  entreat  you  to 
settle  the  difficulty.  I  cannot  express  to  you 
how  profound  an  anxiety  we  feel,  —  how  serious 
are  our  fears." 

We  were  standing  face  to  face  during  the 
conversation,  and  the  earnest,  impassioned  man 
ner  of  the  Prince  impressed  me  with  the  fact 
that  he  was  speaking  from  his  heart.  At  the 
close  of  the  interview  he  seized  my  hand,  gave 
it  a  strong  pressure,  and  exclaimed,  "  God  bless 
you!" 

Although  disappointed  in  his  ambition  for 
the  ministry  Taylor  was  glad  of  the  insight  he 
had  had  into  diplomatic  affairs.  It  was  in  no 
small  measure  due  to  him  that  Russia  continued 
friendly  to  the  Union  when  the  Southern  Con 
federacy  appeared  to  be  victorious,  and  a  propo 
sition  was  submitted  by  France  to  England  and 
Russia  that  the  three  powers  should  conjunc 
tively  propose  *'  to  the  belligerent  parties  in 
America  to  agree  to  an  armistice  of  six  months." 
Taylor  submitted  to  Prince  Gortchakoff,  with 
whom  his  relations  were  more  than  friendly  — 
even  confidential  —  a  detailed  statement  of  the 


152  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

national  debt  of  the  United  States  ;  "  the  esti 
mated  annual  revenue  under  the  new  laws ;  the 
additions  made  to  the  active  force  of  our  armies 
during  the  last  three  months ;  the  number  of 
iron-clad  vessels  in  process  of  construction  and 
the  important  movements  already  commenced 
in  the  West  and  on  the  seacoast."  The  state 
ment  of  facts  which  he  had  drawn  with  great 
care  and  presented  with  clearness  and  force  was 
intended  to  convince  Gortchakoff  that  an  armis 
tice  at  this  time  could  only  be  of  advantage  to 
the  rebellious  states,  and  that  no  proposition 
of  the  kind  could  be  entertained  by  the  fed 
eral  government.  President  Lincoln  expressed 
through  William  H.  Seward  his  gratification  at 
Bayard  Taylor's  performance,  even  though  the 
action  was  a  departure  from  the  strict  line  of 
duty  of  the  charge  d'affaires.  The  communica 
tion  had  dispelled  the  despondency  and  allayed 
the  impatience  of  the  imperial  government  of 
Russia,  and  it  elicited  from  Gortchakof?  the  as 
surance  "  that  the  policy  of  Russia  in  regard 
to  the  United  States  is  fixed,  and  will  not  be 
changed  by  the  course  adopted  by  any  other 
nation." 

After  Bayard  Taylor  had  acquainted  Minister 
Clay  with  the  business  of  the  legation,  and  writ 
ten  to  the  President  that  he  would  not  remain 
under  any  conditions,  he  went  to  Gotha,  where 


NOVEL    WRITING.  153 

he  awaited  dispatches  which  he  was  assured  that 
he  would  receive  from  Washington.  Mr.  Cam 
eron  wrote  that  the  government  felt  that  Taylor 
had  been  treated  rather  shabbily,  when  for  party 
reasons  the  office  of  minister  had  been  given  to 
another,  and  that  it  was  altogether  likely  that 
amends  would  be  made  by  sending  him  on  a 
.special  mission  to  Persia,  to  cement  more  firmly 
the  friendly  alliance  with  Russia,  whose  ambi 
tion  to  advance  upon  the  frontier  of  Persia  was 
well  understood.  While  awaiting  dispatches, 
Taylor  made  a  ten  days'  trip  to  the  Bohemian 
forest,  was  entertained  by  the  Duke  of  Saxe- 
Coburg  Gotha  at  Castle  Kallenberg,  near  Co- 
burg,  and  paid  his  last  visit  to  Eiickert.  June 
30th  he  left  Gotha  for  a  four  weeks'  tour  of 
Switzerland  and  the  Italian  lakes.  Upon  his 
return  he  received  the  news  of  his  brother's 
death  in  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  he  im 
mediately  returned  home,  sailing  August  29th 
on  the  Scotia.  No  explanation  was  forthcom 
ing  of  the  tedious  delay  in  forwarding  the  dis 
patches  from  Washington.  President  Lincoln, 
surprised  at  his  return,  said  that  he  had  believed 
him  to  be  in  Persia.  Secretary  Seward  alone 
knew  why  instructions  and  funds  had  not  been 
sent  to  him  two  months  before  in  St.  Peters 
burg. 

What  Taylor  thought  of  Seward's  duplicity 


154  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

and  intrigue  he  expressed  in  the  sonnet  entitled 
"  A  Statesman." 

"He  knew  the  mask  of  principle  to  wear, 

And  power  accept  while  seeming  to  decline  ; 
So  cunningly  he  wrought,  with  tools  so  fine, 

Setting  his  courses  with  so  frank  an  air, 

(Yet  most  secure  when  seeming  most  to  dare,) 
He  did  deceive  us  all :   with  mien  benign 
His  malice  smiled,  his  cowardice  the  sign 

Of  courage  took,  his  selfishness  grew  fair, 

So  deftly  could  his  foiled  ambition  show 
As  modest  acquiescence.     Now,  't  is  clear 
What  man  he  is,  —  how  false  his  high  report ; 

Mean  to  the  friend,  caressing  to  the  foe  ; 

Plotting  the  mischief  which  he  feigns  to  fear : 
Chief  Eunuch,  were  but  ours  the  Sultan's  court !  " 

Pilloried  by  Taylor's  personal  anger  and  pa 
triotic  indignation,  in  companion  sonnets,  stand 
Secretary  Seward  and  President  Johnson.  To 
the  latter  the  lines  to  "  A  President "  are  ad 
dressed. 

"  Thou,  whom  the  slave-lords  with  contemptuous  feet 
Spurned  in  their  double  insult  —  taunting  thee, 
As  born  of  Labor  and  of  Poverty, 
With  scorn  in  thine  abasement  most  unmeet 
How  dost  thou  find  their  false  embraces  sweet ! 
How  so  insanely  blind,  thou  canst  not  see 
What  shameless  scoffs  in  their  applauses  be  ? 
So  took  the  drunken  slave,  in  Roman  street, 
The  homage  of  his  master's  mocking  mirth  : 

And  thou,  who  might'st  have  lifted  up  thy  race, 
Dost  rather  take  from  Toil  its  dignity, 

And  unto  ignorance  addest  fresh  disgrace. 
But  we  shall  sweep  that  system  from  the  earth 
Which  gave  us  Treason,  war,  and  lastly  —  thee  1  '* 


NOVEL   WEITING.  155 

A  restless  intellect  caused  Bayard  Taylor  to 
try  his  hand  at  all  forms  of  literature.  It  was 
also  with  the  hope  of  working  a  lucrative  liter 
ary  vein  that  would  take  the  place  of  the  repug 
nant  lecturing  trade,  that  he  undertook  the 
composition  of  a  novel.  The  work  was  begun 
in  1861,  and  before  he  left  the  country  to  as 
sume  the  duties  of  the  legation  at  St.  Peters 
burg  he  had  written  seven  chapters.  It  was 
finished  in  Russia  and  published  November, 
1863,  in  New  York  and  London  under  the  title 
"  Hannah  Thurston,  A  Story  of  American 
Life." 

The  novel  was  dedicated  to  George  P.  Put 
nam.  Tennyson  once  said  that  he  never  knew 
an  honest  publisher  until  he  became  acquainted 
with  Macmillan.  It  is  well  known  that  Campbell 
defined  a  publisher  as  the  author's  natural 
enemy.  Taylor's  friendship  for  Putnam  and 
for  Fields  was  an  interesting  example  of  the 
understanding  and  sympathy  that  are  popularly 
supposed  not  to  exist  between  publisher  and 
author.  The  encouragement  of  Mr.  Putnam  at 
a  critical  moment  of  Taylor's  young  and  timid 
life  had  cheered  him  in  the  long  toilsome  career 
he  was  to  run. 

The  scene  of  the  story  is  said  to  be  central 
New  York.  The  events  occur  in  the  village  of 
Ptolemy  on  Atauga  Lake,  upon  the  northern 


156  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

side  of  the  watershed  between  the  Susquehanna 
and  the  rivers  which  flow  into  Lake  Ontario. 
Despite  the  distinctness  of  topographical  defini 
tion,  and  the  near  neighborhood  of  Ptolemy  to 
Anacreon,  Tiberius,  Nero  Corners  and  other 
names  whose  classical  origin  and  antique  lexical 
relish  bespeak  the  nomenclatorial  fancy  of  Sim 
eon  De  Witt,  —  who,  out  of  Lempriere's  Diction 
ary,  gave  to  commonplace  New  York  villages 
the  glory  that  was  Greece  and  the  grandeur  that 
was  Rome,  —  no  one  familiar  with  Pennsylvania 
and  its  people  could  for  a  moment  fail  to  recog 
nize  in  the  happenings  of  the  story  and  the  dia 
lect  of  its  characters  the  life  of  Chester  County. 
Mr.  Maxwell  Woodbury,  the  hero,  has  re 
turned  from  wandering  over  the  world  and  in 
tends  to  resume  his  life  in  the  home  of  his  child 
hood.  The  delight  with  which  he  greets  the  old 
scenes,  familiar  to  him  after  twenty  years,  and 
the  generosity  with  which  he  seeks  to  create  "  a 
warm  atmosphere  around  his  future  home,"  are 
soon  chilled  by  the  petty  slanders  that  the  vil 
lage  breathes,  and  the  tyranny  of  shallow  and 
mistaken  lives.  Immediately  before  the  publica 
tion  of  "  Hannah  Thurston,"  Taylor  had  gone 
through  an  unpleasant  literary  experience  from 
which  he  was  still  smarting.  The  publishers  of 
his  poem,  "  A  Poet's  Journal,"  into  which  he  had 
introduced  certain  moods  of  his  mind  and  life, 


NOVEL   WRITING.  157 

advertised  the  work  as  the  record  of  his  own  ex 
perience.  It  was  humiliating  to  Taylor  even  to 
seem  to  have  unlocked  his  heart  to  public  gaze, 
and  the  distress  that  the  unhappy  announcement 
occasioned  him  was  real  and  lasting.  In  the 
preface  to  "  Hannah  Thurston  "  he  protested 
against  the  popular  superstition  that  an  author 
must  necessarily  represent  himself  in  one  form 
or  another,  saying,  "  I  am  neither  Mr.  Wood- 
bury,  Mr.  Waldo,  nor  Seth  Wattles."  One 
cannot  avoid,  however,  reading  into  the  book 
some  of  Bayard  Taylor's  experience  at  Cedar- 
croft.  When  he  says  of  Maxwell  Woodbury : 
*'  In  the  dreams  of  home  which  haunted  him  in 
lonely  hours,  on  the  banks  of  the  Hoogly  or  the 
breezy  heights  of  Darjeeling,  Lakeside  always 
first  arose,  and  repeated  itself  most  frequently 
and  distinctly,"  it  is  of  his  own  dreams,  when 
lotos-eating  in  Egypt,  or  tanking  in  Syria,  that 
he  is  thinking.  He  too,  like  Woodbury,  had  been 
first  excited,  then  wearied  by  the  atmosphere 
of  the  city  after  "  he  had  slowly  and  comforta 
bly  matured  his  manhood  in  the  immemorial  re 
pose  of  Asia."  And  like  Woodbury  "  he  simply 
wished  to  have  a  home  of  his  own  —  an  ark  of 
refuge  to  which  he  could  at  any  time  return  —  a 
sheltered  spot  where  some  portion  of  his  life 
might  strike  root." 

"  Hannah  Thurston  "  might  be  called  a  prose 


158  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

parallel  of  Tennyson's  "  Princess."  It  is  the 
merest  thread  of  a  story,  and  almost  without  a 
plot.  The  characters  are  types,  not  individuals. 
The  heroine  is  a  good  and  interesting  personal 
ity  ;  the  hero  is  but  a  quintain,  a  mere  lifeless 
block.  The  book  is  a  very  obvious  satire  of  the 
fads  and  "isms "  of  the  hour.  All  the  characters 
are  possessed  by  the  most  curious  crotchets,  — 
spiritualism,  vegetarianism,  teetotalism  and  abo 
lition  come  in  for  their  share  of  honest  and 
wholesome  rebuke.  The  Reverend  Mr.  Styles 
fears  that  so  many  lights  at  the  sewing  union 
"  looks  a  little  like  levity  ;  "  Mrs.  Waldo,  the 
reasonable  wife  of  a  reasoning  clergyman,  "  was 
the  oleaginous  solvent,  in  which  the  hard  yelk 
of  the  Mission  Fund,  the  vinegar  of  the  Cim 
merians,  and  the  mustard  of  the  Abolitionists 
lost  their  repellent  qualities  and  blended  into 
a  smooth  social  compound."  In  the  society  of 
Ptolemy  "  Scandal  was  sugar-coated  in  order  to 
hide  its  true  character  :  love  put  on  a  bitter 
and  prickly  outside,  to  avoid  the  observation  of 
others  ;  all  the  innocent  disguises  of  society  were 
in  as  full  operation  as  in  the  ripened  atmosphere 
of  great  cities." 

The  villain  of  the  story  is  the  spiritualistic 
medium,  Mr.  Dyce,  who,  at  a  seance,  is  trapped 
by  Mr.  Woodbury's  servant,  who  smears  soot 
upon  the  piano  keys ;  and  when  light  is  admitted 


NOVEL    WRITING.  159 

to  the  chamber  the  soot  is  upon  the  very  ma 
terial  hands  that  in  the  darkness  had  played 
the  weird  music  that  thrilled  the  hearers  with 
its  spiritual  origin  and  import.  Woodbury,  re 
calling  with  repugnance  the  occurrences  of  the 
evening,  says  to  himself :  "  Better  a  home  for  the 
soul  within  the  volcanic  rings  of  yonder  barren 
moon  with  no  more  than  the  privacy  it  may 
command  in  this  life,  than  to  be  placed  on  the 
fairest  star  of  the  universe,  and  be  held  at  the 
beck  and  call  of  every  mean  mind  that  dares  to 
juggle  with  sanctities." 

The  great  sewing  union  at  Ptolemy,  the  spirit 
ualistic  seance,  the  meeting  in  favor  of  "  Wo 
men's  Eights,"  and  the  "  temperance "  camp- 
meeting,  are  all  definite  and  innocent  and  more 
or  less  vulgar  phases  of  American  life  as  Bayard 
Taylor  saw  it ;  and  that  which  he  saw  he  re 
ported  with  his  usual  downright  perspicacity  of 
speech.  At  the  entrance  to  the  grove  where  the 
Annual  Temperance  Convention  was  to  be  held, 
"  venders  of  refreshments  had  erected  their 
stands,  and  displayed  to  the  thronging  visitors 
a  tempting  variety  of  indigestible  substances. 
There  was  weak  lemonade,  in  tin  buckets,  with 
huge  lumps  of  ice  glittering  defiantly  at  the  sun ; 
scores  of  wired  bottles,  filled  with  a  sarsaparilla 
mixture,  which  popped  out  in  a  rush  of  brown 
suds ;  ice-cream,  the  cream  being  eggs  beaten 


160  BAYABD   TAYLOB. 

up  with  water,  and  flavored  with  lemon  sirup  ; 
piles  of  dark,  leathery  ginger-cakes,  and  rows  of 
glass  jars  full  of  candy-sticks ;  while  the  more 
enterprising  dealers  exhibited  pies  cut  into 
squares,  hard-boiled  eggs,  and  even  what  they 
called  coffee.  .  .  .  After  an  appropriate  prayer 
by  the  Rev.  Lemuel  Styles,  a  temperance  song 
was  sung  by  a  large  chorus  of  the  younger 
members.  It  was  a  parody  on  Hoffman's  charm 
ing  anacreontic,  '  Sparkling  and  Bright,'  the 
words  of  which  were  singularly  transformed. 
Instead  of  — 

" '  As  the  bubbles  that  swim  on  the  beaker's  brim 
And  break  on  the  lips  at  meeting,' 

the  refrain  terminated  with 

" '  There  's  nothing  so  good  for  the  youthful  blood 
Or  so  sweet  as  the  sparkling  water  !  '  — 

in  the  style  of  a  medicinal  prescription.  Poor 
Hoffman  !  Noble  heart  and  fine  mind,  untimely 
darkened !  He  was  at  least  spared  this  desecra 
tion  ;  or  perhaps,  with  the  gay  humor  with  which 
even  that  darkness  is  still  cheered,  he  would 
have  parodied  the  parody  to  death."  It  was  at 
this  memorable  convention  that  Mr.  Grindle,  in 
a  burst  of  marvelous  rhetoric,  referred  to  "the 
hookah  filled  with  its  intoxicating  draught,"  and 
to  the  tottering  steps  of  those  into  whose  brains 
"  the  fumes  of  sherbet  have  mounted." 


NOVEL   WRITING.  161 

Hannah  Thurston,  like  Tennyson's  Princess, 
whose  surrender  to  love  she  reads  and  under 
stands  when  her  own  heart  is  touched  and  her 
cold  reason  yields,  at  last  "lays  her  masculine 
ambition  in  the  hands  of  love." 

The  book  was  widely  read,  and  commented 
upon  with  favor  by  the  judicious  and  with  in 
dignation  by  the  "  reformers."  Taylor  was 
charged  with  misrepresentation  and  exaggera 
tion.  He  replied  that  far  from  being  exagger 
ated,  the  picture  of  the  community  was  subdued. 
Hawthorne  wrote  to  him,  "  The  book  is  an  ad 
mirable  one,  new,  true,  and  striking,  —  worthy 
of  such  a  world-wide  observer  as  yourself,  and 
with  a  kind  of  thought  in  it  which  does  not  lie 
scattered  about  the  world's  highways."  Even 
the  London  "  Spectator  "  bowed  its  crested  head 
to  say  that  it  was  "  half  inclined  to  suspect  that 
Bayard  Taylor  had  placed  himself  in  the  front 
rank  of  novelists." 

While  Putnam  was  printing  fifteen  thousand 
copies  of  "Hannah  Thurston"  in  the  fall  and 
winter  of  1863,  Taylor  was  continuing  a  long 
poem,  translating  German,  delivering  his  new 
lecture  on  "  Eussia  and  her  People,"  and  solicit 
ing  in  Canada  an  English  copyright  for  his 
novel. 

The  success  of  this  first  attempt  at  fiction 
was  instantaneous.  It  appeared  in  Germany  in 


162  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

translation,  in  Russian  at  St.  Petersburg,  and 
in  Swedish  at  Stockholm.  Taylor  was  encour 
aged  to  try  a  second  novel.  In  New  York, 
March  14,  1864,  he  began  "John  Godfrey's 
Fortunes ;  Related  by  Himself.  A  Story  of 
American  Life,"  and  the  book  was  published  by 
Putnam  in  November.  The  summer  in  which 
it  was  written  was  fully  occupied  with  house 
affairs  and  farm  duties,  a  brief  lecturing  tour, 
poetry  and  translation,  and  magazine  articles. 
In  October  Ticknor  &  Fields  printed  "The 
Poems  of  Bayard  Taylor  "  in  the  beautiful  and 
popular  "  Blue  and  Gold  "  edition. 

Taylor  wrote  with  such  rapidity  that  he  could 
complete  a  duodecimo  volume  in  a  fortnight. 
His  industry  of  hand  was  amazing.  He  seemed 
never  to  weary,  and  his  handwriting  was  excep 
tionally  neat  and  fine.  A  comparison  of  letters 
written  in  his  seventeenth  year  and  in  his  fif 
tieth  shows  almost  no  change  of  hand.  His 
penmanship  and  his  style  were  formed  early 
and  changed  little.  In  the  long  manuscript  of 
"  Faust"  there  is  scarcely  a  misformed  or  care 
lessly  made  letter.  He  was  a  genuine  artist  in 
black  and  white,  and  his  highest  happiness  was 
to  sit  from  morn  till  dewy  eve,  smoking  a  cigar 
that  was  not  too  good,  and  filling  page  after 
page  with  his  neat  chirography.  A  surprising 
instance  is  recorded  of  his  facility  and  speed.  In 


NOVEL   WRITING.  163 

a  night  and  a  day  he  read  Victor  Hugo's  volumi 
nous  "  La  Legende  des  Siecles,"  and  wrote  for 
the  "Tribune"  a  review  of  it  which  fills  eight 
een  pages  of  his  "  Essays  and  Literary  Notes," 
and  contains  five  considerable  poems  which  are 
translations  in  the  metre  of  the  original. 

"John  Godfrey  "  was  written  amid  all  manner 
of  interruptions  and  in  "the  languor  of  an  Afri 
can  summer,"  between  March  15th  and  Au 
gust  llth.  It  contains  five  hundred  and  eleven 
pages,  or  five  hundred  and  ninety-four  pages  of 
Taylor's  closely  written  manuscript.  The  crudi 
ties  of  style  and  the  infirmities  of  construction  in 
"  Hannah  Thurston  "  and  "  John  Godfrey  "  are 
to  be  ascribed  to  the  tearing  speed  at  which  they 
were  written ;  and  necessity's  sharp  pinch  was 
ithe  promoter  of  that  speed.  It  was  not  so  with 
poetry.  With  the  exception  of  an  occasional 
impromptu  like  'f  Icarus,"  the  hundred  verses  of 
which  were  dashed  off  without  pause  and  with 
out  blot  or  erasure,  Taylor  would  spend  hours 
over  a  couplet,  fashioning  it  to  the  figure  in  his 
mind.  But  prose  was  with  him  purely  pedes 
trian.  He  built  no  reputation  on  it,  and  was 
content  that  it  should  supply  him  with  the 
means  to  live  and  to  write  poetry.  Poverty  has 
doubtless  done  more  than  wealth  in  the  literary 
world ;  but  in  that  world,  too,  it  is  no  mean 
happiness  to  be  seated  in  the  mean,  and  the 


164  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

prayer  of  Agur  is  the  petition  of  wisdom.  Tay 
lor  declared  that  he  sang  better  after  the  thorn 
was  pulled  out  of  his  breast :  "  Freedom  from 
pecuniary  anxiety,"  he  said,  "  gives  my  brain  a 
genial  glow,  a  nimble  ease,  a  procreative  power, 
which  I  never  feel  at  other  times."  Fitz-James 
Stephen,  when  he  was  appointed  to  a  judgeship, 
wrote  to  Lord  Lytton  that  he  felt  like  a  man 
who  had  got  into  a  comfortable  carriage  on  a 
turnpike  road  after  scrambling  over  difficult 
mountain  paths.  In  like  manner  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  when  the  year  1865  closed  with  a  comfort 
able  surplus  of  income,  drove  his  "  new  tandem  " 
—  prose  by  day  and  poetry  by  night  —  smoothly 
and  well,  and  with  a  glad  content. 

While  not  an  actual  sketch  of  the  author's  life, 
"  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes "  is  a  reminiscence 
of  certain  moods  of  that  life  and  of  literary  and 
social  experiences  in  New  York.  It  is  no  wonder 
that  the  readers  of  the  book  continued,  maugre 
the  author's  protest,  to  see  in  it  a  personal  his 
tory,  when  they  read  of  John  Godfrey's  birth 
place  :  "  The  Cross-Keys  lay  aside  from  any  of 
the  main  highways  of  the  county,  and  the  farm 
ers  around  were  mostly  descendants  of  the  origi 
nal  settlers  of  the  soil,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  before.  Their  lives  were  still  as  simple 
and  primitive  as  in  the  last  century.  Few  of 
them  ever  traveled  farther  than  to  the  Philadel- 


NOVEL    WRITING.  165 

phia  market,  at  the  beginning  of  winter,  to 
dispose  of  their  pigs  and  poultry.  A  mixture 
of  the  German  element,  dating  from  the  first 
emigration,  tended  still  further  to  conserve  the 
habits  and  modes  of  thought  of  the  commu 
nity.  My  maternal  grandfather  Hatzfeld  was 
of  this  stock,  and  many  of  his  peculiarities, 
passing  over  my  mother,  have  reappeared  in 
me,  to  play  their  part  in  the  shaping  of  my  for 
tunes." 

It  was  Taylor's  habit  to  gather  the  traits  and 
peculiarities  of  his  characters  from  various 
sources.  Not  one  is  drawn  entirely  from  life, 
but  the  reader  who  is  familiar  with  Taylor's 
surroundings  can  see  just  where  he  has  appro 
priated  the  old  materials  that  he  has  so  dexter 
ously  welded  into  new  creations.  There  are 
memories  of  Fitz-James  O'Brien  in  Mr.  Branda- 
gee ;  and  at  least  one  whimsy  of  Estelle  Ann 
Lewis  —  Poe's  "rival  of  Sappho"  —  is  remem 
bered  in  the  account  of  "  Adeliza  Choate,"  who 
tells  Godfrey :  "  I  feel  the  approach  of  Inspira 
tion  in  every  nerve.  ...  It  always  comes  on 
about  three  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  when  the 
wind  blows  from  the  south.  I  change  my  dress 
and  put  on  a  long  white  gown  which  I  wear  at 
no  other  time,  take  off  my  stays,  and  let  my 
hair  down  my  back."  It  was  only  with  her  hair 
streaming  over  her  shoulders  that  the  ''female 


1G6  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

Petrarch,"  the  "rival  of  Sappho,"  was  able  to 
obey  the  Muse. 

The  short  stories  that  Taylor  contributed  to 
the  magazines,  and  some  of  which  were  re 
printed  in  the  volume,  "  Beauty  and  the  Beast : 
and  Tales  of  Home"  (1872),  were  usually 
founded  upon  incidents  in  Chester  County  his 
tory  or  tradition. 

The  Quaker  widow,  in  the  ballad,  recalling 
after  fifty  years  —  that  seem  "  but  one  long 
day,  one  quiet  Sabbath  of  the  heart"  —  the 
little  romance  of  her  marriage,  says :  — 

"  Indeed  't  was  not  the  least  of  shocks, 
For  Benjamin  was  Hicksite,  and  father  Orthodox." 

In  lives  that  seemed  to  have  little  more  of 
change  or  excitement  than  the  Vicar  of  Wake- 
field's  migrations  from  the  brown  bed  to  the 
blue,  and  back  again  from  the  blue  bed  to  the 
brown,  Taylor  found  color  and  incident  enough 
to  weave  an  innocent  romance.  In  the  story 
of  "The  Strange  Friend,"  a  Quaker,  Henry 
Donnelly  by  name,  arrives  from  Adams  County 
and  rents  a  farm  at  Londongrove.  He  and 
his  family  "  become  a  permanent  part  and  par 
cel  of  the  remote  community,  wearing  its  peace 
ful  color  and  breathing  its  untroubled  at 
mosphere."  De  Courcy,  the  son  with  "  the 
outlandish  name,"  rides  a  gallant  horse,  dresses 
a  little  more  elegantly  than  his  membership 


NOVEL   WRITING.  '  167 

prescribes,  and  is  frequently  seen  to  ride  up 
the  Street  Road  "  in  the  direction  of  Fagg's 
Manor,  towards  those  valleys  where  the  brick 
Presbyterian  church  displaces  the  whitewashed 
Quaker  meeting-house."  The  tragical  death  of 
the  lad  is  almost  immediately  followed  by  the 
arrival  of  a  long-expected  agent  from  Europe, 
who  brings  to  the  strange  friend  assurance  that 
his  long  voluntary  exile  is  over,  that  his  estate 
is  free,  and  that  he  can  now  return  as  Lord 
Henry  Dunleigh  to  Dunleigh  Castle. 

Even  here  it  was  not  fiction  that  Taylor  was 
writing,  but  history.  Henry  Hamilton  Cox, 
who  had  inherited  a  heavily  encumbered  landed 
estate  in  Ireland,  came  to  Pennsylvania  and  lived 
in  obscurity  first  in  York  County  and  then  in 
Chester  County,  until  the  income  arising  from 
the  estate  had  cleared  it  of  debt.  He  lived  as 
a  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends  until  1817 
when  he  returned  to  Ireland,  throwing  his 
broad-brimmed  hat,  it  is  said,  into  the  ocean. 
He  was  the  author  of  "  The  Pennsylvania 
Georgics." 

Caleb  Taylor  and  Ellwood  Garrett,  natives 
of  Chester  County,  on  May  29,  1851,  were  at 
Castle  Rock,  overlooking  the  rocks  where  the 
notorious  highwayman  Fitzpatrick  —  the  terror 
of  the  county,  who  scoured  the  country  at  his 
will  between  the  Schuylkill  and  the  Susque- 


168  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

hanna  —  is  supposed  to  have  secreted  his  plun 
der.  Mr.  Garrett  spoke  of  writing  a  story  about 
Fitzpatrick,  but  he  afterwards  suggested  the 
theme  to  Bayard  Taylor,  who  converted  the 
robber  into  the  Sandy  Flash  of  his  third  and 
best  novel,  "  The  Story  of  Kennett  "  (1866). 
It  is  a  true  idyl  of  Pennsylvanian  country  life, 
and  there  are  in  it  sharply  defined  characters 
and  vivid  flashes  of  tragedy.  It  has  made  the 
name  of  the  little  town  of  Kennett  familiar 
in  literature :  "  The  lovely  pastoral  landscapes 
which  I  know  by  heart  have  been  copied,  field 
for  field  and  tree  for  tree,  and  these  you  will 
immediately  recognize,"  he  writes  in  his  Pro 
logue  addressed  to  his  friends  and  neighbors 
of  Kennett.  "  Many  of  you  will  have  no  diffi 
culty  in  detecting  the  originals  of  Sandy  Flash 
and  Deb  Smith ;  a  few  will  remember  the 
noble  horse  which  performed  the  service  I  have 
ascribed  to  Roger ;  and  the  descendants  of  a 
certain  family  will  not  have  forgotten  some  of 
the  pranks  of  Joe  and  Jake  Fairthorn." 

The  landscapes  of  "  the  park-like  region  of 
Kennett "  are  described  with  a  richness  of 
phrase  that  is  heightened  by  the  evident  affec 
tion  of  the  author  for  the  places  of  his  descrip 
tion.  He  misses  no  feature  of  the  scene :  the 
swelling  slopes  of  clover  and  stubble-field,  the 
blue  level  of  Toughkenamon,  the  oak  woods  of 


NOVEL   WRITING.  169 

Avondale,  the  massive  stone  farm-houses,  the 
walled  gardens,  the  hedges  of  hawthorn  and 
blackthorn,  the  young  white-oak  leaves  on  the 
twentieth  of  April  the  size  of  a  squirrel's  ear, 
the  snowy  pyramids  of  dogwood  bloom,  the 
"lush,  tropical  splendor  of  vegetation  such  as 
England  never  knew  [which]  heaped  the  woods 
and  hung  the  roadside  with  sprays  which  grew 
and  bloomed  and  wantoned,  as  if  growth  were 
a  conscious  joy  rather  than  blind  obedience  to 
a  law." 

Like  Plumer  Ward's  De  Vere  who  had  got 
by  heart  every  leaf  and  lady  in  the  Mall  of 
St.  James's  Park,  Bayard  Taylor  knew  every 
feature  of  Chester  County,  from  "  the  red  um 
bels  of  the  tall  eupatoriums  in  the  meadow," 
that  announce  the  close  of  summer,  to  the 
"  pink-veined  bells  of  the  muskodeed,"  that  are 
prophecies  of  spring. 

To  the  people  of  Kennett  the  book  had  a 
special  value  and  interest,  for  it  contained 
events  that  they  remembered  and  people  whom 
they  knew.  The  memory  of  the  deeds  of  Fitz- 
patrick  (Sandy  Flash)  was  still  rife  in  Chester 
County  minds,  and  searches  were  still  instituted 
after  his  hidden  treasure.  Dougherty,  the  Irish 
hostler  of  the  Unicorn  tavern  in  the  story,  was 
actually  an  accomplice  of  Fitzpatrick,  though 
the  real  place  of  his  employment  was  one  mile 


170  SAYAED  TAYLOR. 

northwest  of  Newtown  Square  at  a  tavern  once 
called  Pratt's  House  and  in  the  last  century- 
kept  by  Benjamin  West's  father.1 

"  Deb  "  Smith,  who,  with  a  strange  stirring 
of  a  better  self  not  altogether  coerced  and 
strangled  in  her  brutalized  nature,  befriended 
and  served  Gilbert  Potter,2  was  well  known  in 
East  Marlborough  Township  and  the  neighbor 
hood  as  Rachel  McMullen,  and  was  popularly 
believed  to  be  colleagued  with  the  highwayman. 

Martha  Deane,  "  the  dear  and  noble  woman  " 
whose  character  shines  with  the  purest  radiance, 
one  of  the  gentlest  and  sweetest  figures  in 
American  literature,  was  Ruth  Baldwin,  who 
as  the  wife  of  Thomas  Wilson  lived  in  the  vine- 
covered  house  at  the  east  end  of  Unionville. 
Her  grave  is  a  short  distance  out  of  Unionville 
on  the  road  to  Cedarcroft. 

Bayard  Taylor's  grandfather  is  farmer  Fair- 
thorn,  whose  marriage,  "having  been  a  stolen 
match,  and  not  performed  according  to 4  Friends' 
ceremony,'  occasioned  his  excommunication. 
He  might  have  been  restored  to  the  rights  of 
membership  by  admitting  his  sorrow  for  the 
offense,  but  this  he  stoutly  refused  to  do."  The 

1  In   the   neighboring   Seventh  -  Day   Baptist    Churchyard 
some  of   West's  family   are   buried,   and  Anthony  Wayne's 
mother  and  four  of  her  children. 

2  Gilbert   Potter's  house  still  stands,  two  miles  south  of 
Kennett. 


NOVEL   WRITING.  171 

farmhouse  stood  on  the  right  of  the  wood  im 
mediately  north  of  Kennett  Square,  "in  the 
hollow  into  which  the  road  dips,  on  leaving  the 
village." 

The  two  mischievous  boys,  Joe  and  Jake  Fair- 
thorn,  are  Bayard  Taylor's  father  and  uncle, 
though  many  of  the  pranks  ascribed  to  them 
Taylor  drew  from  the  recollections  of  his  own 
childhood.  "  The  boys  had  been  in  the  habit 
of  taking  the  farm-horses  out  of  the  field  and 
riding  them  up  and  down  the  Unionville  road. 
It  was  their  habit,  as  soon  as  they  had  climbed 
*  the  big  hill,'  to  use  stick  and  voice  with  great 
energy,  force  the  animals  into  a  gallop,  and  so 
dash  along  the  level.  Very  soon,  the  horses 
knew  what  was  expected  of  them,  and  whenever 
they  came  abreast  of  the  great  chestnut-tree  on 
the  top  of  the  hill,  they  would  start  off  as  if 
possessed.  If  any  business  called  Farmer  Fair- 
thorn  to  the  Street  Road,  or  up  Marlborough 
way,  Joe  and  Jake,  dancing  with  delight,  would 
dart  around  the  barn,  gain  the  wooded  hollow, 
climb  the  big  hill  behind  the  lime-kiln,  and  hide 
themselves  under  the  hedge,  at  the  commence 
ment  of  the  level  road.  Here  they  could  watch 
their  father,  as  his  benign  unsuspecting  face 
came  in  sight,  mounting  the  hill,  either  upon 
the  gray  mare,  Bonnie,  or  the  brown  gelding 
Peter.  As  the  horse  neared  the  chestnut-tree, 


172  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

they  fairly  shook  with  eager  expectancy  —  then 
came  the  start,  the  astonishment  of  the  old  man, 
his  frantic  '  Whoa,  there,  whoa !  '  his  hat  soar 
ing  off  on  the  wind,  his  short  stout  body  boun 
cing  in  the  saddle,  as,  half  unseated,  he  clung 
with  one  hand  to  the  mane  and  the  other  to  the 
bridle !  —  while  the  wicked  boys,  after  breath 
lessly  watching  him  out  of  sight,  rolled  over  and 
over  on  the  grass,  shrieking  and  yelling  in  a 
perfect  luxury  of  fun. 

"  Then  they  knew  that  a  test  would  come,  and 
prepared  themselves  to  meet  it.  When,  at  din 
ner,  Farmer  Fairthorn  turned  to  his  wife  and 
said,  'Mammy,'  (so  he  always  addressed  her) 
4 1  don't  know  what 's  the  matter  with  Bonnie  ; 
why,  she  came  nigh  runnin'  off  with  me ! '  — 
Joe,  being  the  oldest  and  boldest,  would  look  up 
in  well-affected  surprise,  and  ask,  '  Why,  how, 
Daddy  ? '  while  Jake  would  bend  down  his  head 
and  whimper,  — 4  Somethin'  's  got  into  my  eye' " 
(p.  147).  So  real  are  the  characters  through 
out  that  when  they  speak  one  almost  seems  to 
hear  the  "  close  wiry  twang  peculiar  to  South 
ern  Pennsylvania."  Miss  Betsy  Lavender,  the 
all-knowing  spinster  whose  "  knowledge  of 
farms,  families,  and  genealogies  extended  up  to 
Fallowfield  on  one  side,  and  over  to  Birmingham 
on  the  other,"  is  a  masterpiece  of  character- 
drawing,  but  Taylor  always  denied  that  in 


NOVEL    WRITING.  173 

this  instance   he  had  any  particular  person  in 
mind.1 

"  Hannah  Thurston  "  represented  "  the  serious 
people"  of  Chester  County;  "The  Story  of 
Kennett"  depicts  "the  old  time  cheer."  With 
a  sigh  for  the  mirth  that  was  gone,  Taylor  wrote 
in  the  "  Proem  "  to  "  Home  Pastorals  :  " 

"  Gone  are  the  olden  cheer,  the  tavern-dance,  and  the  fox-hunt, 
Muster  at  trainings,  buxom  lasses  that  rode  upon  pillions ; 
Husking-parties  and  jovial  home-comings  after  the  wedding, 
Gone,  as  they  never  had  been !  —  and  now,  the  serious  people 
Solemnly  gather  to  hear  some  wordy  itinerant  speaker 
Talking  of  Temperance,  Peace,  or  the  Right  of  Suffrage  for 
Women." 

The  fox  chase  in  Avondale  Woods  with  which 
the  story  of  Kennett  begins,  and  the  wedding 
with  which  it  ends,  are  bold  and  faithful  delin 
eations  of  the  characteristically  English  life  of 
the  Pennsylvanian  country.  The  most  powerful 
and  dramatic  chapter  however,  and  that  which 
excited  most  comment,  is  the  funeral  of  Abiah 
Barton.  For  twenty-five  years  Mary  Potter  had 
been  secretly  married  to  old  Barton's  son  Al 
fred,  and  had  taken  an  oath  not  to  speak  of  the 
marriage  until  the  old  man's  death.  For  a 

1  Mr.  Julius  F.  Sachse  believes  that  the  original  of  Betsy 
Lavender  was  Gobitha  Withers,  a  member  of  St.  James's 
Church,  Maryborough,  Chester  County,  Pa.  St.  James's  is 
known  as  the  "  lost  "  parish.  It  is  the  only  pre-revolutionary 
parish  that  has  gone  out  of  existence. 


174  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

quarter  of  a  century  her  lips  were  sealed  and 
the  shadow  of  ignominy  fell  upon  Gilbert,  her 
noble  son.  Her  time  of  justification  comes  with 
Barton's  death  and  at  the  funeral  she  has  her 
day.  The  critics  disputed  her  right  to  call  it 
"  her  day/'  and  "  to  make  the  old  man's  coffin  a 
platform  on  which  to  exhibit  her  triumph  or  her 
justification.'"'  Mr.  J.  B.  Phillips,  a  life-long 
friend  of  Taylor,  used  a  friend's  prerogative 
and  expressed  with  uncompromising  candor  and 
force  the  opinion  that  must  be  shared  by  many 
readers  of  the  book :  "  The  principal  person 
who  has  my  sympathy  on  that  occasion  is  Gil 
bert  Potter.  He  is  the  man  that  is  pilloried. 
For  him  the  thing  must  have  been  perfectly 
awful.  I  can't  imagine  how  his  worst  or  mean 
est  enemy,  by  the  utmost  stretch  of  malice, 
could  have  by  any  possibility  contrived  a  more 
harrowing  way  of  breaking  to  him  a  most  loath 
some  fact.  His  humiliation  is  perfect  and  com 
plete.  I  agree  with  him  that  Sandy  Flash  were 
a  much  better  father.  I  fail  to  see  much 
triumph  in  Mary's  hanging  on  to  Alf's  rotten 
carcass.  The  funeral  becomes  a  rabble  not 
pleasant  to  contemplate.  The  procession  is 
broken,  and  men  lash  their  horses  to  get  ahead 
and  gloat  their  greedy  eyes  on  the  pilloried  Alf 
and  Potter  and  the  triumphant  Mary  Potter." 
Taylor  defended  what  he  called  the  most  jus- 


NOVEL   WRITING.  175 

tifiable  chapter  in  the  book  by  saying  "  she  had 
fixed,  for  years,  just  this  justification  in  her 
mind  ;  there  is  a  vein  of  superstition  about  her ; 
she  sees  simply  what  she  believes  the  Lord  has 
directed  her  to  do  and  she  does  it.  ...  I  was 
a  year  studying  out  the  plot  before  I  began  to 
write,  and  the  idea  of  the  denouement  at  the 
funeral  came  to  me  like  an  inspiration."  Never 
theless  the  chapter  remains  a  repulsive  one,  and 
the  reader  recoils  from  its  horror  and  its  shame. 

The  pretty  scene  of  love-making  between  Gil 
bert  Potter  and  Martha  Deane  seems  to  me  not 
only  the  best  chapter  in  the  book  but  the  most 
exquisite  incident  of  the  kind  in  American  liter 
ature.  The  sylvan  setting  of  the  scene  of  ten 
der  and  pure  emotion  is  full  of  charm  :  — 

"  The  long  rays  of  sunset  withdrew  to  the 
treetops,  and  a  deeper  hush  fell  upon  the  land. 
The  road,  which  had  mounted  along  the  slope 
of  a  stubble-field,  now  dropped  again  into  a 
wooded  hollow,  where  a  tree,  awkwardly  felled, 
lay  across  it.  Roger  pricked  up  his  ears  and 
leaped  lightly  over.  Martha's  horse  followed, 
taking  the  log  easily,  but  she  reined  him  up  the 
next  moment,  uttering  a  slight  exclamation,  and 
stretched  out  her  hand  wistfully  towards  Gilbert. 

"  To  seize  it  and  bring  Roger  to  a  stand  was 
the  work  of  an  instant.  '  What  is  the  matter, 
Martha  ?  '  he  cried. 


176  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  '  I  think  the  girth  is  broken/  said  she. 
'  The  saddle  is  loose,  and  I  was  nigh  losing  my 
balance.  Thank  you,  I  can  sit  steadily  now.' 

"  Gilbert  sprang  to  the  ground  and  hastened 
to  her  assistance.  '  Yes,  it  is  broken,'  he  said, 
4  but  I  can  give  you  mine.  You  had  better  dis 
mount,  though ;  see,  I  will  hold  the  pommel 
firm  with  one  hand,  while  I  lift  you  down  with 
the  other.  Not  too  fast,  I  am  strong;  place 
your  hands  on  my  shoulders,  —  so  ! ' 

"  She  bent  forward  and  laid  her  hands  upon  his 
shoulders.  Then,  as  she  slid  gently  down,  his 
right  arm  crept  around  her  waist,  holding  her 
so  firmly  and  securely  that  she  had  left  the  sad 
dle  and  hung  in  its  support  Awhile  her  feet  had 
not  yet  touched  the  earth.  Her  warm  breath 
was  on  Gilbert's  forehead  ;  her  bosom  swept  his 
breast,  and  the  arm  that  until  then  had  sup 
ported,  now  swiftly,  tenderly,  irresistibly  em 
braced  her.  Trembling,  thrilling  from  head  to 
foot,  utterly  unable  to  control  the  mad  impulse 
of  the  moment,  he  drew  her  to  his  heart,  and 
laid  his  lips  to  hers.  All  that  he  would  have 
said  —  all,  and  more  than  all,  that  words  could 
have  expressed  —  was  now  said,  without  words. 
His  kiss  clung  as  if  it  were  the  last  this  side  of 
death,  —  clung  until  he  felt  that  Martha  feebly 
strove  to  be  released. 

"  The  next  minute  they  stood  side  by  side,  and 


NOVEL   WRITING.  177 

Gilbert,  by  a  revulsion  equally  swift  and  over 
powering,  burst  into  a  passion  of  tears.  He 
turned  and  leaned  his  head  against  Eoger's 
neck. 

"  Presently  a  light  touch  came  upon  his  shoul 
der. 

"  4  Gilbert ! ' 

"  He  faced  her  then,  and  saw  that  her  own 
cheeks  were  wet.  4  Martha  !  '  he  cried,  4  un 
less  you  love  me  with  a  love  like  mine  for  you, 
you  can  never  forgive  me  !  ' 

44  She  came  nearer  ;  she  laid  her  arms  around 
him,  and  lifted  her  face  to  his.  Then  she  said, 
in  a  tender,  tremulous  whisper,  — 

44  4  Gilbert  —  Gilbert !  I  forgive  you.'  " 

The  fourth  and  last  of  Bayard  Taylor's  novels, 
44  Joseph  and  his  Friend :  A  Story  of  Pennsyl 
vania,"  was  begun  in  January,  1869,  at  Cedar- 
croft,  contributed  serially  to  the  44  Atlantic,"  and 
published  by  Putnam,  November  24, 1870.  It  is 
an  unpleasant  story  of  mean  duplicity  and  pain 
ful  mistakes.  The  characters  are  shallow  and 
their  surroundings  shabby.  There  is  not  a 
single  pleasing  situation  or  incident  in  the  book. 
Bismarck  told  Bayard  Taylor  that  he  had  read 
the  novel  twice  and  was  sure  that  it  contained 
one  serious  defect.  He  said,  44  You  let  your 
villain  escape  too  easily ;  that  is  not  poetic  jus 
tice,  nor  any  kind  of  justice,  in  my  opinion." 


CHAPTER  V. 

TRANSLATING    FAUST,   AND    OTHER    GERMAN 
STUDIES. 

1867-1874. 

"  THE  Story  of  Kennett "  and  "  The  Picture 
of  St.  John"  were  published  in  1866.  The 
former  was  Bayard  Taylor's  best  prose  work, 
the  latter  his  first  sustained  poem.  Between 
the  publication  of  the  novel  in  the  spring,  and 
the  poem  in  the  fall,  two  summer  months  were 
spent  roughing  it  in  the  Kockies.1  Looking 
back  across  the  twenty  years  of  authorship  that 
lay  between  "  Views  Afoot,"  and  "  The  Story 
of  Kennett,"  Bayard  Taylor  regarded  the  prod 
ucts  of  those  years  as  so  many  phases  of  an 
education  which  circumstances  had  compelled 
him  to  acquire  in  the  sight  of  the  public.  "  In 
a  literary  sense,"  he  wrote  to  J.  B.  Phillips, 
August  5,  1866,  "  I  have  almost  entirely 
changed  in  the  last  five  years." 

Between  his  return  from  Europe  in  1858  and 

1  Colorado :  A  Summer  Trip  (1867)  is  the  narrative  of  this 
vacation. 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.     179 

his  departure  again  in  1867  he  had  published 
nine  volumes  and  given  six  hundred  lectures. 
He  was  exhausted,  and  longed  for  rest ;  but  he 
felt  that  his  Wanderjahre  were  over,  and  that  he 
had  solid  ground  beneath  his  feet  and  a  definite 
place  in  the  world  of  letters. 

He  was  growing  vigorously  and  continuously. 
The  phrase  "  cosmical  experience,"  so  often  on 
his  lips,  was  the  expression  of  his  eager  joy  in 
progress,  and  of  the  delight  he  felt  as  he  wheeled 
into  a  new  orbit,  in  exploring  new  lands,  or  en 
countering  new  lives.  He  craved  intellectual 
novelty,  and  quieted  the  demands  of  his  nervous 
intellect  by  taking  up  unusual  studies  or  essay 
ing  the  painter's  brush  in  place  of  the  pen. 

His  early  life  had  been  warped  by  sentimen 
tality  and  cribbed  by  repression.  Two  centu 
ries  of  Quaker  ancestry  had  condemned  him  to 
slow  development.  From  the  first  there  was  a 
purely  literary  strain  in  his  blood,  but  the  nice 
sense  of  proportion  and  of  harmony  was  slowly 
arrived  at.  He  was,  he  said,  ten  years  behind 
every  other  American  author  ;  but  when  those 
who  had  the  start  of  him  flowered  and  ceased  he 
was  stepping  on  with  quick  impatience  to  more 
novel  experiments  and  to  more  conspicuous  re 
sults.  The  really  great  things  of  which  he  was 
capable  were  still  before  him  when  he  died,  with 
more  unfulfilled  renown  and  unaccomplished 


180  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

growth  within  him  than  any  other  man  in 
American  letters. 

It  was  characteristic  of  such  a  nature,  and  of 
such  an  intellectual  history,  to  regard  with  dis 
satisfaction  that  was  sometimes  almost  shame 
the  works  of  the  earliest  stages  of  its  devel 
opment.  Always  the  last  thing  he  did  he  re 
garded  as  his  best.  He  had  no  interest  in  work 
behind  him.  The  book  he  was  writing  was 
leagues  in  advance  of  anything  he  had  written. 
He  was  offended,  or  at  least  hurt,  when  in  an 
swer  to  the  question  he  so  frequently  put  to  his 
friends,  —  "  Which  book  of  mine  do  you  like  the 
best  ?  "  —one  said  "  Poems  of  the  Orient  "  and 
another  "John  Godfrey's  Fortunes."  He  was 
extremely  sensitive  to  critical  opinion,  and  inno 
cently  vain  of  his  personal  history.  It  was  his 
natural  and  inevitable  hunger  for  recognition 
and  sympathy  that  made  him  repeat  with  keen 
enjoyment  the  favorable  words  of  men  whom  he 
respected. 

After  the  Civil  War,  Taylor  found  a  new  set 
of  literary  men  in  New  York  ;  the  old  order 
had  changed,  giving  place  to  new.  He  began  to 
see  better  work  in  store  for  him,  and  with 
splendid  energy  and  resolution  he  undertook  to 
bury  his  superficial,  ephemeral  popularity  as 
traveler  and  journalist,  and  to  acquire  another 
and  higher  reputation. 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      181 

About  1850  he  first  conceived  the  idea  of 
translating  "  Faust."  In  September  or  October, 
1863,  he  commenced  the  work;  in  May,  1870, 
he  finished  it.  The  notes  were  written  in  nine 
months  more,  and  the  first  part  was  published  in 
December,  1870,  and  the  second  part  in  March, 
1871.  "  Genius,"  said  Carlyle,  "  is  the  capacity 
for  taking  infinite  pains."  Only  a  fellow  of  the 
craft  can  know  the  all-unestimated  sum  of  pains 
that  went  to  the  magnificent  success  of  Taylor's 
matchless  rendering  of  the  great  German  poem. 
He  toiled  terribly  upon  it.  He  mastered  much 
of  the  prodigious  literature  that  has  accumulated 
about  the  greatest  poem  of  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury.  He  familiarized  himself  with  the  ramifi 
cations  of  the  legend  in  history  and  art.  He  ex 
amined  a  score  of  translations,  read  commenta 
ries,  compared  sundry  editions,  and  compressed 
the  labor  of  a  lifetime  into  seven  years.  The 
learned  world  at  first  mistrusted  him,  the  task 
seemed  so  impossible ;  but  with  the  completion 
of  the  work  all  doubts  and  distrust  were  lost  in 
the  universal  appreciation  and  acceptance  of  the 
splendid  achievement. 

Bayard  Taylor's  education  had  come  largely 
from  travel.  He  picked  his  knowledge  from 
the  living  bush.  He  was  not  a  learned  man  ; 
indeed  he  was  notoriously  no  scholar.  He  was 
not  sure  of  the  correctness  of  the  Latin  title  of 


182  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

his  poem,  "  Notus  Ignoto."  He  was  fifty,  as 
has  been  already  noted,  before  he  took  up  the 
study  of  Greek.  He  was,  however,  a  close  and 
rapid  reader,  and  had  a  tenacious  memory  that 
dropped  not  a  single  thread.  After  the  lapse  of 
twenty  or  thirty  years  he  could  still  promptly 
recall  poems  that  he  had  committed  to  memory 
in  his  youth.  Indeed,  his  memory  was  sometimes 
a  thwart  disnatured  torment  to  him,  when  some 
wretched  doggerel  that  he  had  read  once  and 
incontinently  rejected  arose  in  his  recollection 
after  a  score  of  years  with  distressing  distinct 
ness.  He  knew  by  heart  the  entire  First  Part 
of  Faust  and  most  of  the  Second ;  and  he  fre 
quently  made  his  translation  from  the  ring  of 
the  original  in  his  ear  and  not  from  a  perusal 
of  the  printed  page. 

The  great  world  of  eye  and  ear  had  taught 
him  more  than  it  vouchsafes  to  most  men  who 
lift  its  jealous  veils.  He  had  a  wide  knowledge 
of  men  and  affairs  that  spread  a  far  horizon 
about  his  literary  work.  He  had  lived  and 
looked  about  him.  He  was  once  surprised  at 
Cedarcroft  with  an  order  from  the  "  Tribune  " 
to  prepare  a  sketch  of  Louis  Napoleon  "  to  be 
used  in  the  event  of  the  emperor's  abdication." 
Drawing  almost  entirely  from  the  stores  of  his 
memory,  Taylor  wrote  in  three  days  an  entire 
page  of  the  "  Tribune." 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      183 

It  is  doubtful  if  any  foreigner  ever  obtained 
more  complete  mastery  than  Bayard  Taylor  of 
the  resources  of  the  German  language.  At 
Vienna,  when  he  was  reporting  the  Exhibition 
of  1873  for  the  "New  York  Tribune,"  in  an 
impromptu  speech  at  the  journalists'  banquet 
he  coined  a  new  and  felicitous  German  word,  — 
Weltgemuthlichkeit,  —  which  was  received  with 
approbation  and  was  made  the  title  of  a  leading 
article  in  one  of  the  Viennese  dailies. 

His  German  style  was  idiomatic,  his  vocabu 
lary  full,  and  his  command  of  the  harmonies 
of  verse  extraordinarily  prompt  and  accurate. 
One  pretty  little  poem  in  the  manner  of  Kotze- 
bue  has  been  already  quoted,  but  as  Goethe  in 
general  and  "  Faust "  in  particular  were  Tay 
lor's  cult,  the  object  of  his  best  directed  ener 
gies,  and  as  his  studies  in  German  led  to  his 
most  positive  and  permanent  literary  triumphs, 
it  seems  well  to  illustrate  a  little  further  his  skill 
and  originality  in  marshaling  German  verse. 

After  the  surrender  of  MacMahon's  army 
Taylor  wrote  "  Jubel-lied  eines  Amerikaners," 
which  was  published  in  "  Lieder  zu  Schutz 
und  Trutz  "  (Berlin,  1870),  and  republished  in 
the  "  Neue  Reichs-Commersbuch,"  edited  by 
Miiller  von  der  Werra.  It  was  set  to  music 
by  Jakob  Blied.  This  popular  triumph -lied 
ran:  — 


184  BA  YARD  TA  YLOB. 

"  Triumph  !  das  Schwert  in  tapf 'rer  Hand 

Hat  hohe  That  vollbracht ; 
Vereint  ist  nun  das  deutsche  Land 

Zum  Sieg  und  Ruhm  erwacht ! 
Die  Macht,  die  jiingst  so  hohniseh  prahlt 

Giebt  auf  die  letzte  Wehr, 
Und  neuer  Glanz  der  Thaten  strahlt 

Auf  Deutschlands  Helden  heer ! 

"  Heil  edles  Volk !  dem  neu  das  Hers 

So  unerschiittert  schlug ! 
Das  sich  verband  und  allerwarts 

Verwarf  den  frank'schen  Trug ! 
Das,  fest  und  heilig,  Glied  an  GHed, 

Stand  endlich  ira  Verein 
Mit  Trost  und  Muth,  Gebet  und  Lied, 

Eine  einz'ge  Wacht  am  Bhein ! 

"  Kanonen,  donnert  noch  einmal ! 

Den  Frieden  nun  ihr  bringt  : 
Ihr  Glocken,  iiber  Berg  und  Thai 

Von  Tausend  Thiirmen  klingt ! 
Fromm  neige  dich,  O  deutsches  Land 

Lass  Rache  ruhn  und  Spott : 
Dein  Gott  erhalf  und  iiberwand 

Nun  danket  Alle  Gott !  " 

Bayard  Taylor's  intellect  was  of  that  activity 
that  it  gave  him  trouble  not  to  work ;  and  his 
superabundant  animal  spirits  abandoned  him  in 
his  hours  of  relaxation  to  the  most  riotous  quips 
and  voluntary  absurdities.  At  his  evenings  at 
home  in  New  York  he  and  his  merry  comrades 
played  practical  jokes  and  fantastic  pranks  ;  and 


FAUST — OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      185 

in  the  "  Echo  Club  "  in  frolicsome  mood  he  trav 
estied  the  gravest  lines  of  serious  men.  Humor 
is  a  severe  test  of  a  translator's  skill.  Jests  are 
such  frail  atomies  that  they  scarcely  bear  trans 
port  from  their  native  territory.  The  gibe  that 
in  one  country  makes  the  whole  quire  hold  their 
hips  and  laugh,  and  waxen  in  their  mirth,  ap 
pears  dull  and  leaden  unto  another  people. 

That  Taylor  had  acquired  with  the  German 
tongue  a  full  appreciation  of  the  quality  of 
German  humor  appears  in  the  following  parody 
extemporized  at  Gotha  :  — 

"  Kennst  du  das  Land,  wo  schonste  Braten  bliihn, 
Im  Lettichlaub  die  goldnen  Eier  gliihn, 
Ein  sanfterer  Duft  vom  Marcobrunner  weht 
Gemiise  still,  und  hoch  das  Wildpret  steht, 
Kennst  du  es  wohl  ?  Dahin,  dahin, 
Mocht  ich,  geliebte  Frau,  zum  Essen  mit  dir  ziehn ! 

"  Kennst  du  das  Haus  ?  Gastfreundlich  ist  sein  Dach  : 
Die  Liebe  wohnt  im  Saal  und  im  Gemach, 
Und  edle  Wirthe  stehen  und  sehen  uns  an  : 
Was  haben  sie  schon  oft  so  viel  fur  uns  gethan ! 
Kennst  du  es  wohl  ?  Dahin,  dahin, 
Mocht  wieder  ich  mit  der  Familie  ziehn ! 

"  Kennst  du  den  Berg  und  seinen  Gartensteg  ? 
Durch  Himbeerstrauch  die  Gaste  ziehen  ihren  Weg, 
Doch  oben  wohnt  das  theure  edle  Paar, 
Die  uns  bewirthet  schon  so  manches  Jahr, 
Kennst  du  sie  wohl  ?  Dahin,  dahin, 
So  oft  sie  rufen,  woll'n  wir  Alle  ziehn." 


186  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

In  his  translation  of  "  Faust "  Taylor  aimed 
to  reproduce  the  rhythm,  the  oral  effect  of  the 
original,  no  less  than  its  logical  or  grammatical 
meaning.  Enamored  of  his  toil,  and  thrilled 
with  the  mighty  melody  of  the  verse,  he  con 
ceived  the  lines  "  An  Goethe  "  which  stand  at 
the  front  of  his  translation.  They  seem  to  me 
resplendent  with  gleams  that  are  kindred  to  the 
great  spirit  with  whom  Taylor  had  held  such 
close  and  high  converse  :  — 

"  Erhabener  Geist,  im  Geisterreich  verloren  ! 
Wo  immer  Deine  lichte  Wohnung  sey, 
Zum  hbh'ren  Schaff en  bist  Du  neugeboren, 
Und  singest  dort  die  voll're  Litanei. 
Von  jenem  Streben  das  Du  auserkoren, 
Vom  reinsten  Aether,  drin  Du  athmest  frei, 
O  neige  Dich  zu  gnadigem  Erwiedern 
Des  letzten  Wiederhalls  von  Deinen  L'iedern ! 

"  Den  alten  Musen  die  bestaubten  Kronen 
Nahmst  Du,  zu  neuem  Glanz,  mit  kiihner  Hand : 
Du  lost  die  Rathsel  altester  Aeonen 
Durch  jiingeren  Glauben,  helleren  Verstand, 
Und  machst,  wo  rege  Menschengeister  wohnen, 
Die  ganze  Erde  Dir  zum  Vaterland  ; 
Und  Deine  Jiinger  sehn  in  Dir,  verwundert, 
Verkorpert  schon  das  werdende  Jahrhundert. 

"  Was  Du  gesungen,  Aller  Lust  und  Klagen, 
Des  Lebens  Wiederspriiche,  neu  vermahlt,  — 
Die  Harf e  tausendstimraig  frisch  geschlagen, 
Die  Shakspeare  einst,  die  einst  Homer  gewahlt  — 
Darf  ich  in  fremde  Klange  iibertragen 
Das  Alles,  wo  so  Mancher  schon  gef  ehlt  ? 


FAUST— OTHER  GEEMAN  STUDIES.      187 

Lass  Deinen  Geist  in  meiner  Stimme  klingen, 
Und  was  Du  sanest,  lass  mich  es  Dir  nachsingen!  " 

Concerning  these  verses,  which  moult  no 
feather  in  comparison  with  Goethe's  own,  Tay 
lor  wrote  to  Professor  James  Morgan  Hart : 
"  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  translate 
my  own  German  proem,  because  it  was  con 
ceived  in  German.  I  could  only  give  the  same 
thought,  in  English  —  although  my  own  —  in 
paler  colors." 

The  translation  of  "  Faust  "  was  not  done  in 
leisure  or  without  interruption.  The  hope  of 
reducing  his  expenses,  and  the  pleasant  antici 
pation  of  meeting  old  friends  and  family  con 
nections  in  Germany,  led  Taylor,  in  February, 
1867,  to  sail  for  Europe.  Rest  was  his  inten 
tion,  but  the  necessity  of  providing  for  the 
expenses  of  Cedarcroft  compelled  him  to  write 
a  number  of  letters  to  the  "Tribune,"  and 
articles  for  the  "  Atlantic  Monthly." 

From  England,  where  he  met  several  men  of 
letters,  he  went  to  Gotha,  and  then  to  Lausanne. 
He  did  considerable  painting  in  both  oil  and 
water  colors,  and  he  made  two  trips,  one  to  "  the 
little  land  of  Appenzell,"  and  one  to  Paris  to  see 
the  International  Exhibition.  His  letters  to  the 
"  Tribune  "  related  chiefly  to  the  art  collections 
of  the  exhibition,  and  his  judgments  upon  the 
American  works  were  at  once  candid  and  kind. 


188  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

At  the  close  of  May  lie  started  for  Spain 
intending  to  visit  some  out  of  the  way  places  of 
Europe.  The  first  of  the  "  Atlantic "  papers 
that  record  this  journey  is  "  From  Perpignan 
to  Montserrat."  He  has  written  few  better 
descriptions  than  that  of  the  serrated  mountain, 
the  "  strange,  solitary,  exiled  peak,  drifted 
away  in  the  beginning  of  things  from  its  breth 
ren  of  the  Pyrenees."  No  doubt  his  chief  inter 
est  in  it  was  because  Goethe  had  appropriated 
the  scenery  of  Montserrat  for  the  fifth  act  of 
the  second  part  of  "  Faust." 

He  made  one  excursion  to  the  Balearic 
Islands,  another  over  Catalonian  bridle-roads  to 
the  little  republic  of  Andorra  in  the  Pyrenees, 
undisturbed  by  the  changes  of  a  thousand  years 
of  history.  He  was  the  first  American  who 
ever  saw  this  forgotten  corner,  which  is  probably 
even  now  known  only  through  Halevy's  opera 
"Le  Val  d'Andorre." 

He  returned  to  Lausanne  and  Gotha  by  way 
of  the  Grande  Chartreuse  and  the  Chateau 
Bayard.  He  rested  during  July  and  August  at 
Friedrichrode,  where  he,  together  with  James 
Lorimer  Graham,  had  taken  a  villa.  "  Our 
cottage,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Stedman,  "has  a 
flagstaff,  and  on  that  staff  floats  the  American 
flag ;  inside  we  have  German  lessons,  exercises 
in  art,  beer,  wine,  occasional  trout,  visitors  from 


FAUST — OTHER   GEEMAN  STUDIES.      189 

Gotha,  chess,  and   my  papers  for   the  'Atlan 
tic.'  " 

After  a  little  visiting  among  friends  and 
relatives,  and  an  excursion  to  Kyffhauser  (for 
its  legends  of  Barbarossa),  Taylor  and  his  party 
turned  southward  again  over  the  Brenner  Pass 
into  Italy.  He  became  ill  at  Verona,  but  pushed 
on  to  Venice  where  the  travelers  halted  for 
a  while,  and  Taylor,  sketching  by  the  canal, 
became  poisoned  with  malaria  and  rapidly  de 
veloped  the  latent  fever  in  his  system.  Fortu 
nately  the  party  reached  Florence  before  the 
illness  culminated,  and,  in  Casa  Guidi,  he  lay 
in  delirium  for  four  weeks.  His  strong  consti 
tution,  the  wise  services  of  his  English  physi 
cian,  and  the  sedulous  care  of  those  about  him 
saved  his  life.  After  his  recovery  he  wrote  a 
poem,  suggested  by  the  circumstance  that  in 
the  house  in  which  he  had  been  nursed  back  to 
life  Elizabeth  Barrett  Browning  had  once  lived, 
and  written  some  of  her  most  memorable  verse, 
and  died;  and  he  sent  the  poem  to  Robert 
Browning. 

"  Returned  to  warm  existence,  —  even  as  one 
Sentenced,  then  blotted  from  the  headsman's  book, 
Accepts  with  doubt  the  life  again  begun,  — 
I  leave  the  duress  of  my  couch,  and  look 
Through  Casa  Guidi  windows  to  the  sun. 


190  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  She  came,  whom  Casa  Guidi  chambers  knew, 
And  know  more  proudly,  an  Immortal,  now  ; 
The  air  without  a  star  was  shivered  through 
With  the  resistless  radiance  of  her  brow, 
And  glimmering  landscapes  from  the  darkness  grew. 

"  Thin,  phantom-like  ;  and  yet  she  brought  me  rest. 
Unspoken  words,  an  understood  command, 
Sealed  weary  lids  with  sleep,  together  pressed 
In  clasping  quiet  wandering  hand  to  hand, 
And  smoothed  the  folded  cloth  above  the  breast. 

"  The  tablet  tells  yon,  '  Here  she  wrote  and  died,' 
And  grateful  Florence  bids  the  record  stand  : 
Here  bend  Italian  love  and  English  pride 
Above  her  grave,  —  and  one  remoter  land, 
Free  as  her  prayers  would  make  it,  at  their  side." 

After  his  convalescence  he  spent  a  month 
(January,  1868)  in  Naples,  living  on  the  quay 
of  Santa  Lucia  from  which  he  moved  just  in 
time,  for  he  had  been  gone  but  four  days  when 
the  great  rock  of  Pizzofalcone  behind  the  quay 
fell,  demolishing  among  others  the  house  in 
which  he  had  lived  and  killing  eighty  persons. 
"Atlantic"  papers,  "  A  Week  on  Capri"  and 
"  A  Trip  to  Ischia,"  were  written  in  February 
at  Sorrento.  In  March  he  arrived  in  Rome, 
where  he  spent  two  months  with  Buchanan  Read 
and  Bierstadt  and  troops  of  friends  ;  he  engaged 
a  studio  and  spent  the  forenoons  figure-painting. 
After  a  brief  sojourn  in  Florence,  in  the  old 
quarters  at  Casa  Guidi,  he  made  an  excursion  to 


FAUST — OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      191 

Corsica  and  the  Island  of  Maddalena,  where  he 
had  "  a  distant  view  of  Caprera,"  as  Garibaldi 
declined  to  see  him. 

In  September,  1868,  he  returned  to  America 
and  to  Cedarcroft.  He  celebrated  the  golden 
wedding  of  his  parents  with  a  week  of  mirth  and 
frolic.  Health  seemed  to  be  held  in  the  Taylor 
family  by  tenure  of  gavelkind  ;  three  genera 
tions  in  succession  had  celebrated  their  golden 
wedding.  Boker  and  Stoddard,  who  on  this 
occasion  were  present,  read  poems,  and  Taylor 
composed  a  pretty  little  masque  in  the  pleasant 
ancient  manner. 

The  year  1869  was  spent  almost  entirely  at 
Cedarcroft.  It  began  with  the  writing  of  "  No- 
tus  Ignoto"  and  ended  with  the  approaching 
completion  of  "Faust."  The  arduous  studies 
for  the  latter  work  were  made  more  toilsome  by 
the  distraction  of  the  "  Gettysburg  Ode."  The 
great  significance  of  the  dedication  of  the  monu 
ment  at  Gettysburg,  and  his  own  personal  associ 
ations  with  that  fatal  field  on  which  his  brother 
fell,  prompted  him  to  the  most  painful  care  in 
the  performance  of  what  was  always  an  uncon 
genial  and  difficult  task  to  him,  —  the  making 
of  a  poem  of  which  he  had  not  had  at  first  the 
vision  in  his  own  imagination.  Soon  after  the 
reading  of  the  "  Ode "  at  Gettysburg  he  was 
called  upon  to  deliver  the  oration  at  Guilford, 


192  BAYAED   TAYLOE. 

Connecticut,  upon  the  dedication  of  the  granite 
obelisk  erected  in  honor  of  Fitz-Greene  Halleck, 
—  the  first  public  monument  raised  to  an 
American  poet.  Nor  was  this  all ;  in  Ripley's 
absence  from  the  "  Tribune "  Taylor  prepared 
in  his  stead  many  important  book  reviews.  He 
saw  a  new  edition  of  "  Views  Afoot "  through 
the  press,  and  published  "  By- Ways  of  Europe." 
He  also  voluntarily  interrupted  his  German 
studies  to  write  "  An  August  Pastoral,"  in  which 
his  love  of  the  scenery  and  his  notion  of  the  life 
of  his  native  place  find  a  higher  literary  expres 
sion  than  in  his  novels. 

"  Therefore  be  still,  thou  yearning  voice  from  the  garden  in 
Jena, 

Still,  thou  answering  voice  from  the  park-side  cottage  in 
Weimar, 

Still,  sentimental  echo  from  chambers  of  office  in  Dres 
den,  — 

Ye,  and   the   feebler   and  farther  voices   that  sound  in   the 


Each  and  all  to  the  shelves  I  return :  for  vain  is  your  com 
merce 

Now,  when  the  world  and  the  brain  are  numb  in  the  torpor  of 
August." 

Taylor's  "  Faust "  was  to  be  published  by 
Fields,  Osgood  &  Co.  in  a  volume  uniform  with 
the  quarto  editions  of  Longfellow's  "Dante," 
and  Bryant's  "  Iliad."  Such  companionship  put 
Taylor  on  his  mettle.  A  large  edition  appeared 
December  14,  1870,  and  nearly  all  the  copies 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.     193 

were  sold  upon  that  day.  In  the  evening,  at 
the  home  of  James  T.  Fields,  a  small  but 
distinguished  company  met  to  congratulate 
the  successful  translator.  Longfellow,  Lowell, 
Holmes,  Howells,  Aldrich,  and  Osgood  sat 
around  a  bust  of  Goethe  which  was  placed  upon 
the  library  table,  and  the  night  was  dedicated 
to  Goethe  and  to  Taylor.  Whittier,  who  could 
not  be  present,  sent  a  letter  of  regret  in  which 
he  noted  with  fondly  partial  pride  that  "the 
best  translation  of  Tasso  is  that  of  the  Quaker 
Wiffin,  and  now  we  have  the  best  of  Goethe 
from  the  Quaker-born  Taylor." 

George  Bancroft,  at  that  time  minister  to 
Germany,  took  charge  of  the  copies  that  were 
sent  to  Berlin  for  distribution,  and  almost  the 
first  copy  presented  in  Germany  was  to  Bis 
marck,  who  had  expressed  a  desire  to  have  the 
translation. 

It  was  Taylor's  belief  that  poetry  absolutely 
required  for  its  successful  translation  the  origi 
nal  metres.  And  in  the  original  metre  he  ren 
dered  "  Faust."  The  merits  of  his  version,  it 
has  been  said,  are  sympathetic  quality,  rapid 
poetic  handling,  and  fidelity  to  text.  The  trans 
lation  of  the  "  astonishing  chorus  "  of  the  arch 
angels  with  its  "  planetary  cosmic  harmony " 
has  never  been  surpassed  in  English  except  by 
Shelley's  almost  inspired  version.  Over  every 


194  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

word  of  "  Faust "  Bayard  Taylor  pondered  with 
the  minutest  care.  Twenty  or  thirty  synonyms 
for  every  chief  word  in  a  quatrain  were  hunted 
up,  and  hours,  days,  and  weeks  spent  in  making 
the  crooked  words  lie  smooth.  He  was  right 
when  he  said  that  the  resonance  of  the  original 
can  only  be  preserved  when  the  measure  is 
clearly  marked  and  the  vowel  harmonies  imi 
tated. 

Frederick  Harrison  deplores  that  Coleridge 
did  not  act  upon  Shelley's  suggestion  and  give 
us  "  Faust "  in  the  language  of  "  Wallenstein," 
"  Kubla  Khan,"  and  "  Christabel."  True,  great 
poets,  of  imagination  all  compact,  with  poetic 
intuition  have  interpreted  the  wonderful  atmos 
phere  which  envelops  .great  poems  and  which 
seems  to  defy  all  attempts  at  translation.  Yet 
even  Shelley,  who  had  for  years  studied  and 
imitated  the  archangels'  chorus,  and  had  de 
clared  that  "the  volatile  strength  and  delicacy 
of  the  ideas  escape  in  the  crucible  of  transla 
tion,"  has  but  little  surpassed  Taylor  in  these 
particular  lines.  In  the  prologue  to  "  Hellas  " 
Shelley  had  imitated  the  chorus ;  and  one  year 
later  (1822)  he  attempted  both  a  literal  and 
poetic  translation  of  Goethe's  lines.  Where 
Shelley  has,  as  it  seems  to  me,  far  excelled  Tay 
lor  is  in  the  mocking  irreverence  of  Mephis- 
topheles.  He  has  caught  the  spirit  of  the  lines 


FAUST — OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.     195 

"  Von  Zeit  zu  Zeit  seh'  ich  den  Alien  gern, 

Und  hiite  mich  mit  ihm  zu  brechen. 
Es  ist  gar  hiibsch  von  eineni  grossen  Herrn, 

So  menschlich  mit  dem  Teufel  selbst  zu  sprechen," 

which  he  renders, 

"  From  time  to  time  I  visit  the  old  fellow, 
And  I  take  care  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  him. 
Civil  enough  is  the  same  God  Almighty 
To  talk  so  freely  with  the  Devil  himself." 

How  much  more  appropriate  is  this  jaunty 
irreverence  than  Bayard  Taylor's  sedate  — 

"  I  like  at  times  to  hear  the  Ancient's  word, 

And  have  a  care  to  be  most  civil : 
It 's  really  kind  of  such  a  noble  Lord 
So  humanly  to  gossip  with  the  Devil." 

September  2,  1869,  Bayard  Taylor  accepted 
his  election  to  the  non-resident  professorship  of 
German  literature  at  Cornell  University.  In 
the  spring  of  the  following  year,  April  20-May 
2,  he  delivered  a  course  of  lectures  before  the 
university  upon  Lessing,  Klopstock,  Schiller, 
Goethe,  and  Humboldt.  In  order  that  the  citi 
zens  of  Ithaca,  as  well  as  the  students,  might 
attend,  the  lectures  were  given  in  Library  Hall. 

The  following  year  Taylor  wrote  new  lectures 
upon  the  earliest  German  literature,  the  Minne 
singers,  the  Mediaeval  Epic,  the  Nibelungenlied, 
the  literature  of  the  Kef ormation,  and  the  litera 
ture  of  the  seventeenth  century.  These  were 
read  in  Ithaca,  in  June,  1871,  and  repeated  May 


196  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

21-29,  1877.  In  May,  1875,  he  lectured  upon 
Lessing,  Klopstock,  Herder,  Wieland,  Richter, 
Schiller,  and  Goethe.  Many  warm  friendships 
began  between  the  lecturer  and  members  of 
the  faculty  of  Cornell  University ;  Goldwin 
Smith  "  carried  away  a  pleasant  memory  of  his 
pleasant  lectures,"  and  from  Professor  Willard 
Fiske  and  Professor  W.  T.  Hewett,  Taylor  re 
ceived  scholarly  suggestions  that  his  quick  brain 
wrought  into  fresh  material  for  literary  fame 
and  profit. 

A  cough  which  had  been  troublesome  through 
the  winter  of  1869-1870,  and  caused  some  con 
cern  to  his  friends,  clung  to  him  so  persistently 
that  in  May,  1870,  he  started  for  California, 
hoping  not  only  to  regain  his  wonted  health,  but 
to  earn  by  lecturing  some  much  needed  money. 
Every  anticipation  was  disappointed,  and  he  re 
turned  home,  confessing  a  loss  of  several  hundred 
dollars. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  the  lives  of  authors 
should  come  to  be  sordid  or  shabby  histories  of 
financial  distress,  —  mere  records  of  getting  and 
spending.  The  French,  with  justice,  censure 
English  biography  for  the  perpetual  presence  in 
it  of  the  guinea's  stamp.  But  in  the  story  of 
Taylor's  life  it  seems  inevitable  that  his  biogra 
pher  should  refer  frequently  to  his  business  vi 
cissitudes,  for  Taylor's  life  was  a  struggle  for 


FAUST — OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.     197 

the  means  to  live,  and  the  intensity  of  the  strug 
gle  is  the  measure  of  the  difficulties  that  beset 
those  who  in  America  made  literature  their  pro 
fession. 

Throughout  1871  he  was  continually  battling 
against  ill-health.  He  published  the  second 
part  of  "Faust,"  a  story  in  the  "Atlantic 
Monthly,"  a  paper  on  Humboldt  and  "Down 
the  Eastern  Shore,"  in  "  Harper's  Weekly,"  two 
articles  for  "  Scribner's  Magazine  "  and  one  for 
the  "  Independent."  He  began  his  editorial 
work  upon  the  "  Library  of  Travel "  for  Scrib- 
ners,  and  furnished  frequent  articles  and  reviews 
for  the  "New  York  Tribune."  He  made  two 
excursions,  one  to  the  eastern  shore  of  Mary 
land,  which  he  described  in  a  magazine  article 
for  "  Harper's,"  and  the  other  to  Lakes  Supe 
rior  and  Winnipeg,  with  Whitelaw  Reid  and  a 
party  of  editors,  which  he  wrote  about  in  letters 
to  the  "  Tribune."  It  is  not  work  that  kills,  but 
worry,  and  the  cares  of  Cedarcroft  were  weigh 
ing  heavily  upon  him.  The  crops  failed,  the 
cost  of  living  increased,  his  own  income  was  di 
minishing  ;  debts  accumulated  and  added  to  the 
nagging  of  the  neighbors  at  Kennett.  Debt  is 
always  more  harshly  considered  in  the  country 
than  in  cities,  and  particularly  so  among  the 
Quakers,  who  are  rigidly  exact  and  prompt  in 
the  settlement  of  money  transactions.  He  had 


198  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

outlived  the  sentiment  that  attached  him  to  the 
spot.  "  Seclusion  in  our  country,"  he  said, 
"  means  nothing  but  moral  and  intellectual 
stagnation."  He  saw  the  life  of  peace  and 
poetry  that  he  had  dreamed  of,  receding  from 
him.  He  realized  that  his  move  to  Kennett  had 
been  a  mistake,  and  in  heavy  disappointment  he 
resolved  to  withdraw  forever  from  the  place. 
This  meant  a  revising  and  recasting  of  his  plan 
of  life.  He  put  Cedarcroft  in  the  hands  of  an 
agent  and  offered  it  for  sale.  He  went  to  New 
York,  and  in  comfortable  quarters  at  12  Uni 
versity  Place  passed  the  winter. 

The  next  year,  1872,  he  made  another  radical 
move  in  life.  He  was  worn  with  much  labor, 
fatigued  and  worried.  He  found  that  the  new 
works  of  real  literary  merit  upon  which  he  had 
been  for  seven  years  engaged  did  not  appeal  to 
the  masses ;  they  were  caviare  to  the  general. 
The  books  of  travel  which  he  had  written  in  his 
salad  days  he  could  not  look  into  without  wincing 
with  a  feeling  of  positive  pain;  yet  for  these 
books  of  immature  intellect,  and  at  times  flip 
pant  style,  he  had  received  splendid  remunera 
tion,  while  from  the  serious  and  toilsome  products 
of  his  ripe  age,  with  their  due  proportion  and 
developed  art,  he  had  now  to  be  content  with 
the  most  meagre  profits.  Not  at  any  time  did 
he  stand  more  in  need  of  money  than  now. 


FAUST — OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.     199 

Lecturing  was  no  longer  a  successful  occupa 
tion,  nor  was  it  to  be  entered  upon  without 
actual  hazard  of  health.  The  capital  invested 
in  his  country  property  was  unproductive.  The 
"  Tribune"  undertook  a  building  enterprise 
which  absorbed  its  funds,  and  the  last  dividend 
upon  the  shares  that  Taylor  held  was  paid  in 
the  spring  of  1872. 

The  need  of  rest  and  the  desire  to  collect 
materials  for  the  lives  of  Goethe  and  Schiller, 
which  it  had  already  become  his  ambition  to 
write,  determined  him  to  go  to  Germany,  and 
to  remain  there  for  one  or  two  years.  Cedar- 
croft  was  leased  in  three  parts ;  all  his  personal 
property  was  placed  in  storage,  and  the  old  par 
ents  were  comfortably  established  in  a  house  in 
Kennett.  Taylor  left  his  home  of  twelve  years 
never  to  return  to  it  save  as  a  visitor,  and  sailed 
June  6,  1872,  upon  the  steamer  Westphalia  for 
Hamburg.  The  autumn  he  spent  in  the  Thii- 
ringerwald ;  in  Gotha  he  lived  at  the  observatory 
at  the  corner  of  the  park.  The  close  of  the 
year  brought  him  the  news  of  Horace  Greeley's 
death,  and  the  "  Tribune's "  misfortune ;  al 
though  he  did  not  yet  know  it,  he  was  to  receive 
during  the  remainder  of  his  life  no  dividend 
upon  his  "  Tribune  "  shares.  The  only  ray  of 
consolation  for  all  the  blackness  that  surrounded 
him  was  the  generous  and  ample  recognition  in 


200  'BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Germany  of  his  translation  of  "  Faust."  Every 
where  he  came  upon  materials  for  his  life  of 
Goethe  which  kindled  him  with  new  eagerness 
and  curiosity.  At  Ilmenau  he  was  put  into  the 
room  where  Goethe  celebrated  his  last  birthday 
in  1831.  At  Rudolstadt,  in  July,  1872,  he 
rambled  along  the  paths  which  Schiller  had  fol 
lowed  ;  he  visited  the  forge  where  Schiller  stud 
ied  the  staffage  for  his  ballad  of  "  Fridolin," 
and  "  The  Song  of  the  Bell,"  but  was  too  late 
to  see  the  lodge  on  the  Kickelhahn,  destroyed 
by  fire  eighteen  months  before,  where  Goethe 
wrote  upon  the  wall,  "  Ueber  alien  Gipfeln  ist 
Huh."  The  Grand-Duke  of  Saxe- Weimar,  grand 
son  of  Carl  August,  invited  Taylor,  in  October, 
to  dinner  in  the  Sangersaal  in  the  Wartburg. 
The  dinner  was  served  in  "  the  same  old  Byzan 
tine  hall  where  Tannhauser  sang,"  between  the 
pillars  "against  which  certainly  must  have 
leaned  Wolfram  von  Eschenbach  and  Walther 
von  der  Vogelweide." 

December  12,  1872,  at  Gotha  he  lectured  in 
German  upon  American  literature  for  the  bene 
fit  of  the  Frauenverein.  "  I  have  written  it 
directly  in  German,"  he  wrote  to  his  friend 
Professor  Hart,  "  but  have  no  idea  how  I  shall 
succeed  in  the  delivery,  as  I  have  never  before 
tried  such  a  thing."  The  lecture  was  repeated 
in  Weimar  upon  the  invitation  of  Wieland's 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      201 

granddaughter,  before  the  Gustav- Adolf  Verein. 
It  was  given  in  the  hall  of  the  mediaeval  society 
of  Arquebusiers.  After  the  lecture  the  Grand- 
Duke  said  to  Taylor,  "  You  have  made  one  seri 
ous  omission ;  you  have  said  nothing  about  your 
self."  The  whole  court  was  present  on  this 
occasion ;  and  among  Taylor's  auditors  were  the 
grandchildren  of  Carl  August,  Goethe,  Schiller, 
Herder,  and  Wieland. 

At  Weimar  Taylor  became  acquainted  with 
Baron  von  Stein,  grandson  of  Frau  von  Stein, 
Baron  von  Gleichen-Russwurm,  Schiller's  grand 
son,  the  painter  Preller,  a  protege  of  Goethe 
whose  son  died  in  his  arms,  and  the  scholar 
Schbll,  chief  librarian  at  Weimar.  "  My  great 
encouragement,"  he  wrote,  "is  that  after  test- 
ing  my  own  conception  of  Goethe  here,  by  those 
who  knew  him,  I  am  not  obliged  to  make  any 
change."  He  visited  Staatsrath  Stichling,  the 
grandson  of  Herder,  made  a  most  interesting 
acquaintance  in  Wolfgang  von  Goethe,  another 
in  Herr  von  Salis,  and  yet  another  in  Fraulein 
Frommann,  the  foster-sister  of  Minna  Herzlieb, 
the  "Ottilie"  of  Goethe's  "  Wahlverwandt- 
schaften."  "  Yesterday  I  met,"  he  wrote,  No 
vember  12,  1873,  to  Professor  Hart,  "the 
daughter  of  Falk,  and  so  it  goes,  —  every  day 
the  grand  old  time  comes  nearer  to  me  through 
those  who  partly  lived  in  it." 


202  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

When  he  first  called  upon  Preller  he  saw  in 
the  artist's  room  a  cast  of  Trippel's  bust  of 
Goethe,  the  Apollo  head,  modeled  in  Rome  in 
1787.  Taylor  said,  "I  see  the  same  head  of 
Goethe  here,  and  in  the  same  position,  as  in 
my  own  room  at  home ;  only  opposite,  I  have 
placed  the  Venus  of  Milo.  He,  as  man,  should 
stand  beside  her,  as  woman."  Preller  arose, 
seized  Taylor  by  the  arm,  and  pointed  to  a  bust 
of  the  Venus  of  Milo.  "  There  she  is,  "  he  ex 
claimed,  "  I  see  her  every  day  of  my  life,  but  I 
never  pass  her  without  saying  to  myself :  '  My 
God,  how  beautiful  she  is ! ' ' 

Taylor's  enthusiasm  ran  high,  rich  stores  of 
materials  were  opening  before  him,  and  already 
the  dual  biography  of  Goethe  and  Schiller  was 
taking  form  in  his  imagination.  It  is  a  little 
curious  that  his  own  intellectual  life  had  fol 
lowed  the  course  of  Goethe's.  Like  him  he  had 
begun  his  German  life  in  Frankfurt,  and  now 
it  was  culminating  with  him  in  Weimar.  The 
"  Westoestlicher  Divan  "  had  perhaps  exerted 
some  influence  over  him  when  he  was  writing 
"  Poems  of  the  Orient ; "  now  it  was  his  ambi 
tion  to  give  to  American  literature  a  poem  in 
the  style  of  "  Faust  "  or  "  Pandora."  Goethe 
had  become  his  one  intense  literary  passion  ! 

Dogged  by  ill-fortune  and  suffering  ill-health, 
Taylor  sought  the  softer  air  of  Italy,  in  Janu- 


FAUST—  OTHEE   GERMAN  STUDIES.      203 

ary,  1873,  resting  on  the  way  at  Lausanne.  He 
resumed  his  old  quarters  in  Florence  at  Casa 
Guidi.  He  reported  the  exposition  at  Vienna 
for  the  "  Tribune,"  and  in  summing  up  the  lit 
erary  achievement  of  the  twelvemonth  he  wrote, 
"  This  is  perhaps  the  most  fruitful  —  certainly 
the  most  laborious  —  year  of  my  life."  In  Lau 
sanne,  January,  1873,  he  began  a  school  history 
of  Germany  for  Messrs.  Appleton  —  a  potboiler 
by  which  he  expected  speedily  to  earn  two  or 
three  thousand  dollars.  He  continued  the  work 
in  Florence,  Gotha,  and  Vienna,  and  finished  it 
on  the  first  of  August.  In  October  and  Novem 
ber  he  wrote  "  The  Prophet,"  a  play.  That  he 
was  still  oppressed  by  financial  embarrassment 
is  clear  from  the  following  letter  to  William  D. 
Howells :  — 

GOTHA,  GERMANY,  February  6,  1874. 

MY  DEAR  HOWELLS,  —  Your  very  welcome 
letter  was  forwarded  to  me  from  Florence  three 
days  ago.  We  were  just  ready  to  leave  here, 
the  first  week  in  January,  when  my  daughter 
was  suddenly  taken  down  with  a  severe  attack 
of  fever,  from  which  she  is  now  slowly  recover 
ing.  We  have  had  a  month  of  anxiety,  of  wait 
ing  and  watching,  instead  of  a  sunny  Italian 
month  of  rest ;  but  we  must  be  grateful  and 
hopeful.  I  hope  to  get  away  in  four  or  five 
days  more. 


204  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Herewith  I  send  you  a  short  story,  which  is 
hardly  included  in  our  bargain,  but  inasmuch  as 
short  stories  with  meanings  in  them  are  not  very 
abundant  in  the  market,  I  conjecture  that  you 
may  be  willing  to  get  it.  I  began  an  article  on 
Weimar,  but  Lilian's  fever  interrupted  me,  and 
the  fleeting  fancy  of  the  story  thrust  itself  be 
tween.  The  money  for  it  is  needed  in  Pennsyl 
vania  ;  so  please  have  it  sent  as  soon  as  possible, 
to  my  mother,  Mrs.  Rebecca  W.  Taylor,  Ken- 
nett  Square,  Pennsylvania,  and  you  will  greatly 
oblige  me. 

I  am  glad  you  did  not  misinterpret  the  spirit 
of  my  letter.  I  have  told  you  (more  than  once, 
I  fancy)  that  I  am  engaged  in  the  somewhat 
desperate  task  of  burying  such  reputation  as 
I  had  ten  years  ago  several  thousand  fathoms 
deep,  and  creating  a  new  one.  I  have  always 
felt  that  you  cordially  recognized  this  endeavor, 
but  the  words  in  which  you  now  say  it  are  like 
an  additional  prop  thrust  under  my  will  and 
patience.  The  fact  that  you  returned  the  poem 
which  I  consider  much  the  more  important  and 
original  of  the  two  was  a  little  discouraging, 
coming,  as  it  did,  upon  the  heels  of  two  months 
of  steady  bad  news  of  every  possible  kind.  I 
see  no  American  papers,  I  do  not  know  how  my 
articles  are  received,  and  may,  therefore,  under 
estimate  the  standing  I  have  already  gained 


FAUST— OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      205 

with  such  men  as  yourself.  As  for  the  super 
cilious  fashion  in  which  I  am  treated  by  many 
newspaper  writers,  it  has  long  ceased  to  be  an 
annoyance. 

I  gladly  accept  your  offer  for  four  articles. 
It  leaves  me  a  certain  amount  of  freedom,  which 
I  always  need,  in  order  to  work  satisfactorily. 
As  for  poems,  I  confess  I  am  still  a  little  puz 
zled  how  to  decide  what  you  are  likely  to  like 
in  mine.  A  man's  taste  is  much  more  difficult 
to  understand  than  his  character.  However,  I  '11 
try  again  when  the  next  one  comes.  I  feel  more 
at  home  in  the  "  Atlantic  "  than  anywhere  else. 

My  situation  is  a  little  difficult.  I  may  tell 
you  now,  that  for  two  years  past  I  have  had  no 
income  from  my  few  "  Tribune "  shares,  shall 
have  none  for  two  more  to  come,  and  am  now 
devouring  the  last  of  the  proceeds  of  one  which 
I  was  forced  to  sell.  Except  a  pittance  of  about 
750  dollars  a  year  from  all  my  books,  I  have  no 
income  at  all,  except  my  immediate  earnings, 
and  nearly  all  my  labor  for  eighteen  months  past 
is  not  yet  remunerative.  For  instance,  I  spent 
eight  months  of  last  year,  averaging  eight  hours 
a  day,  on  a  history  of  Germany  for  schools, 
which  Appletons'  have  not  yet  brought  out. 
Under  all  these  restrictions,  I  dare  not  neglect 
the  more  important  Goethe  studies,  and  when 
they  are  finished  I  shall  hasten  home  to  work 


206  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

for  a  living  until  the  better  time  comes.  There 
has  been  an  unusual  mental,  moral,  and  physi 
cal  strain  upon  me  ever  since  leaving  home,  and 
a  cheery  word  from  a  friend  never  had  such  a 
value  as  now.  .  .  .  Good  luck  to  the  "Atlan 
tic,"  under  H.  and  H. ! 

Ever  faithfully  yours, 

BAYAKD  TAYLOR. 

The  History  of  Germany  was  based  on  Miil- 
ler's  large  work,  and  upon  Dittmar  and  von 
Eochau,  and  while  accurate  and  comprehensive, 
was  not  condensed  with  particular  originality  or 
skill,  and  was  scarcely  available  for  the  school 
use  for  which  it  was  intended.  Appleton  &  Co. 
found  it  unsatisfactory  so  far  as  the  illustrations 
were  concerned,  and  publication  was  deferred 
until  the  close  of  1874,  to  the  great  disappoint 
ment  of  the  author.  Another  disappointment 
was  the  English  edition  of  "  Lars  :  A  Pastoral 
of  Norway."  It  was  the  first  of  Taylor's  poems 
to  be  published  in  England,  and  the  sale  was 
just  one  hundred  and  eight  copies. 

February,  March,  and  April,  1874,  Bayard 
Taylor  and  his  family  spent  in  an  excursion 
to  Italy  and  to  Cairo.  He  wrote  eleven  let 
ters  from  Egypt  to  the  "  Tribune."  He  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Mariette  Bey  and  studied 
with  delight  the  new  discoveries  in  Egyptology. 


FAUST —  OTHER   GERMAN  STUDIES.      207 

After  his  return  to  Germany  he  went  to  Leipzig 
to  avail  himself  of  Hirzel's  invitation  to  ex 
amine  his  unique  Goethe  and  Schiller  library. 
While  turning  over  these  volumes,  examining 
eighteen  folio  scrapbooks  of  newspaper  articles 
concerning  Goethe,  and  making  notes  to  bear 
away  with  him  to  America,  an  urgent  request 
was  received  from  Whitelaw  Reid  to  go  to  Ice 
land  as  the  representative  of  the  "  Tribune  "  to 
report  the  commemoration  of  the  millennial  an 
niversary  of  the  first  settlement  of  the  island. 
He  controlled  his  impatience  to  return  home, 
saying  that  "  to  the  few  who  have  never  known 
any  other  Alma  Mater  than  the  'New  York 
Tribune  ' 

"  ('  Stern  rugged  nurse,  thy  rigid  lore 
With  patience  many  a  year  I  bore  !  ') 

her  (or  its)  call  is  like  that  of  the  trumpet  unto 
the  war-horse."  He  made  the  journey  to  Ice 
land  in  company  with  Cyrus  Field,  Murat  Hal- 
stead,  Dr.  I.  I.  Hayes,  one  of  Mr.  Gladstone's 
sons,  and  Professor  Magnusson,  upon  a  steamer 
that  had  been  chartered  by  Mr.  Field. 

On  the  way  from  Edinburgh  —  where  he 
was  entertained  by  Mr.  Nelson  in  his  magni 
ficent  home  "  Hope  Park,  "  at  the  foot  of  Ar 
thur  's  Seat  —  to  Aberdeen,  Taylor  looked  forth 
upon  Ury,  famed  in  Whittier's  ballad,  where 
once  lived  Robert  Barclay,  the  Apologist,  and 


208  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

which  in  1874  was  the  home  of  Alexander 
Baird.  A  few  days  later  Taylor  was  sailing 
through  the  straits  between  Pomona  and  Shap- 
inshay,  —  from  which  latter  little  island  Wash 
ington  Irving's  father  had  emigrated,  —  and  on 
through  "  desolate  rainy  seas  "  to  Iceland. 

Taylor  was  profoundly  interested  in  all  that 
he  saw.  "  If  you  step  on  a  blossom,"  he  wrote 
in  "  Egypt  and  Iceland,"  "  it  may  be  an  Arctic 
plant,  unknown  elsewhere  ;  if  a  bird  flies  over 
head  it  is  probably  an  eider  duck ;  if  a  boy 
speaks  in  the  street,  he  may  use  words  made 
venerable  in  the  Eddas  of  Saemund  and  Snorre 
Sturlesson  "  (p.  206). 

At  Reikiavik  Taylor  presented  a  poem  — 
"America  to  Iceland"  —  which  was  immediately 
translated  into  Icelandic  by  Mathias  Jochums- 
son,  the  translator  of  "  Lear  "  and  "  Macbeth." 
Taylor  in  turn  Englished  Magnusson's  Icelandic 
address  to  King  Christian  IX. 

His  farewell  reflections  upon  Iceland  were : 
"  Not  Thingvalla,  or  Hekla,  or  the  Geysers,  — 
not  the  desolate  fire-blackened  mountains,  the 
awful  gloom  of  the  dead  lava  plains,  the  bright 
lakes  and  majestic  fiords,  —  have  repaid  me  for 
the  journey,  but  the  brief  glimpse  of  a  grand 
and  true-hearted  people,  innocent  children  in 
their  trust  and  their  affection,  almost  more  than 
men  in  their  brave  unmurmuring  endurance !  " 


FAUST—  OTHER  GEEMAN  STUDIES.     209 

The  Iceland  trip  postponed  Taylor's  return  to 
America  for  a  month  ;  it  was  not  until  Septem 
ber  9,  1874,  that  he  arrived  in  New  York.  He 
brought  home  with  him  a  considerable  library 
containing  many  rare  and  valuable  books  upon 
Goethe  and  Schiller.  He  went  at  once  to  Ce- 
darcroft,  where  he  was  a  guest  of  his  own  family, 
and  set  about  a  mountain  of  work.  He  put 
in  order  the  letters  he  had  sent  to  the  "  Trib 
une  "  and  published  them  in  October  under  the 
title  "  Egypt  and  Iceland ;  "  he  wrote  the  first 
of  his  papers  on  Weimar  for  the  "  Atlantic 
Monthly  ;  "  many  invitations  to  lecture  were  ac 
cepted,  and  a  new  lecture,  "  Ancient  Egypt," 
was  prepared  ;  an  immense  correspondence  was 
dispatched,  and  above  all  the  distractions  of  the 
moment  and  brightening  over  the  mass  of  toil 
that  filled  his  busy  hours,  shone  the  alluring 
prospect  of  the  new  Life  of  Goethe.  "  My  one 
great  encouragement  since  coming  here,"  Tay 
lor  had  written  from  Weimar,  "  is  the  assurance 
that  I  have  nothing  to  unlearn.  My  auffassung 
of  Goethe,  as  man  and  poet,  in  every  import 
ant  point  is  confirmed  by  those  who  knew  him 
personally."  The  chief  encouragement  after  his 
return  was  the  cordial  recognition  of  the  merit 
of  his  literary  work,  and  most  of  all  the  simple 
but  sincere  welcome  which  he  received  within 
three  months  of  his  fiftieth  year  from  his  Ches- 


210  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

ter  County  friends  and  neighbors  at  Mount 
Cuba,  the  scene  of  some  of  the  incidents  of 
"  Lars."  The  spontaneity  and  simplicity  of  the 
greeting,  the  soft  air  and  tender  pastoral  land 
scape,  wiped  from  his  mind  many  rude  memories 
of  the  conflicts  of  opinion  and  habit  that  the 
jarring  years  had  written  there,  and  he  thanked 
God  and  took  courage,  facing  bravely  the  new 
work  that  was  to  build  for  him  the  reputation 
that  he  still  yearned  for  in  the  highest  courts  of 
literature. 

Another  recognition,  too,  he  appreciated 
highly.  Upon  the  invitation  of  the  Delta 
Kappa  Epsilon  fraternity  he  acted  as  chairman 
of  their  national  convention  at  the  University  of 
Virginia  and  delivered  an  oration. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

POEMS   AND   PLAYS. 

BAYARD  TAYLOR  was  never  more  delighted 
than  when  in  Iceland  he  was  called  "  the  Ameri 
can  Skald."  Nothing  kindled  his  pride  and  his 
pleasure  like  praise  of  his  poetry.  His  fame  as 
a  traveler  and  a  journalist,  however  wide  and 
secure,  was  slightly  weighed  by  him  ;  and  the 
superficial  repute  that  came  with  lecturing  and 
with  editing  brought  him  regret  rather  than  sat 
isfaction.  The  laurels  he  coveted  were  far  other 
than  these.  In  his  inmost  heart,  nourishing 
his  wonderful  vitality,  burned  a  sacred  and  un 
quenchable  ambition  to  bear  the  name  of  Poet, 
and  to  be  reckoned  with  those  great  singers  who 
have  flashed  the  torch  of  spiritual  life  above  the 
throngs  of  men.  All  other  efforts  and  aspira 
tions  were  subordinated  to  this  absorbing  passion. 
No  praise  of  his  miscellaneous  achievements, 
when  he  was  winning  and  wearing  proud  distinc 
tion  in  statecraft,  in  scholarship,  and  in  letters, 
could  reconcile  him  to  the  slightest  sense  of 
failure  in  his  poetic  endeavor.  He  toiled  ter 
ribly,  he  exhausted  himself  with  the  multitude 


212  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

of  his  tasks,  "  he  wore  himself  out  and  perished 
prematurely  of  hard  and  sometimes  bitter  work." 
The  recompense  was  in  the  sweet  silent  hours  — 
"  the  holy  hours,"  as  Klopstock  called  them  — 
dedicated  to  poetry.  He  was  saved  from  the 
cynicism  and  hardness  that  are  often  the  con 
sequence  of  such  companionship  and  such  toil  as 
were  sometimes  his  in  New  York,  not  only  by 
the  sweetness  and  gentleness  of  his  disposition 
but  by  the  refreshing  and  purifying  influence 
of  his  single-hearted  devotion  to  the  highest 
poetry.  George  Henry  Boker  well  says  :  "  His 
childlike  purity  and  joyousness  of  heart  he  owed 
to  the  worship  of  an  art  for  which  his  reverence 
was  boundless.  .  .  .  He  believed  himself  to  be 
a  poet,  —  of  what  stature  and  quality  it  is  now 
for  the  world  to  decide,  —  and  in  that  faith  he 
wrought  at  his  vocation  with  an  assiduity  and  a 
careful  husbanding  of  his  time  and  opportuni 
ties  for  mental  and  for  written  poetical  compo 
sition,  that  was  wonderful  as  an  exhibition  of 
human  industry,  and  in  its  many  and  varied  re 
sults,  when  we  take  into  consideration  his  wan 
dering  life  and  his  diversified  and  exacting  em 
ployments." 

The  passion  to  be  remembered  with  those  who 
in  song  have  lent  a  glory  to  the  language  we 
inherit,  was  the  inspiration  and  the  disappoint 
ment  of  his  life.  It  was  with  a  smile  that  had  a 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  213 

touch  of  sadness  in  it  that  he  told  of  his  en 
counter  with  a  stranger  who  asked  permission  to 
take  him  by  the  hand,  saying  that  he  had  read 
and  enjoyed  all  his  books. 

"  And  what  do  you  think  of  my  poetry  ?  " 
asked  Taylor. 

"  Poetry,"  was  the  astonished  reply,  "  did  you 
ever  write  any  poetry  ?  " 

We  have  seen  how  with  trembling  hesitation 
he  addressed  a  copy  of  his  first  frail  volume  of 
collected  verses  to  Longfellow,  and  another  to 
Lowell,  hardly  daring  to  hope,  in  his  boyish 
phrase,  that  he  might  call  himself  "  a  brother- 
bard."  Once  when  alone  in  Lowell's  library,  he 
came  upon  a  copy  of  his  translation  of  "  Faust " 
lying  idly,  with  the  leaves  uncut,  upon  the  shelf, 
and  his  sensitive  nature  sustained  an  instant 
wound,  to  which  no  philosophy  could  make 
him  indifferent. 

The  fellow  craftsman's  sympathy  he  longed 
for,  and  was  at  his  best  when  in  the  company 
of  poets.  After  reading  Poe's  criticism  upon 
Tennyson,  he  eagerly  sought  for  the  volume,  and 
the  mature  man,  recalling  the  raptures  of  the 
lad  of  seventeen,  wrote,  "  I  remember  also  the 
strange  sense  of  mental  dazzle  and  bewilderment 
I  experienced  on  the  first  perusal  of  it.  I  can 
only  compare  it  to  the  first  sight  of  a  sunlit  land 
scape  through  a  prism :  every  object  has  a  rain- 


214  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

bowed  outline.  One  is  fascinated  to  look  again 
and  again,  though  the  eyes  ache." 

Twenty-five  years  after  thai  first  looking  into 
Tennyson,  Bayard  Taylor  spent  a  long  day  at 
Farringford  with  the  Laureate.  He  was  shown 
a  great  stretch  of  wheat-fields  bought  by  "  Enoch 
Arden  ;  "  he  was  treated  to  Napoleon's  port  and  to 
bumpers  of  rich  brown  sherry,  out  of  magnums, 
thirty  years  old,  — "  meant  to  be  drunk  by 
Cleopatra  or  Catherine  of  Russia,"  said  Tenny 
son.  He  heard  the  Laureate  read  "  Guinevere," 
in  "  a  strange  monotonous  chant  with  unexpected 
falling  inflections,"  and  essay  the  difficult  "  Bo- 
adicea,"  "  chanting  the  lumbering  lines  with 
great  unction."  Mrs.  Browning  says,  that 

"  Poets  ever  fail  in  reading1  their  own  verses  to  the  worth, 
The  chariot  wheels  jar  in  the  gates  thro'  which  they  drive 
them  forth." 

Tennyson  read  his  "  Idylls  of  the  King  "  with 
choral  intonation,  for  he  was  completely  domi 
nated  by  the  metrical  sense.  He  read  for  "  at 
mosphere,"  letting  the  intellectual  articulation 
take  care  of  itself.  Bayard  Taylor  read  for  the 
"  sense ;  "  all  that  he  did  was  done,  as  Bacon 
would  have  said,  "  in  dry  light."  The  spiritual 
man  in  Tennyson  moulded  and  informed  his 
verse ;  with  Taylor  the  verse  was  built  up  by 
intellectual  intention. 

Soon  after  the  visit  or  visitation,  to  Tennyson, 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  215 

Taylor  called  upon  Matthew  Arnold,  whose  ap 
pearance  immediately  reminded  him  of  George 
William  Curtis,  and  upon  Robert  Browning, 
on  whose  table  he  found  "The  Picture  of  St. 
John."  To  Swinburne,  Taylor  read  his  "  Sun 
shine  of  the  Gods  :  "  — 

"  Be  glad,  for  this  is  the  token, 
The  sign  and  the  seal  of  the  Poet ; 
Were  it  held  by  will  or  endeavor, 
There  were  naught  so  precious  in  Song. 
Wait  :  for  the  shadows  unlifted 
To  a  million  that  crave  the  sunshine, 
Shall  be  lifted  for  thee  erelong. 
Light  from  the  loftier  regions 
Here  unattainable  ever,  — 
Bath  of  brightness  and  beauty,  — 
Let  it  make  thee  glad  and  strong ! 
Not  to  clamor  or  fury, 
Not  to  lament  or  yearning, 
But  to  faith  and  patience  cometh 
The  Sunshine  of  the  Gods, 
The  hour  of  perfect  Song  !  "  — 

and  elicited  the  criticism  that  the  poem  should 
either  contain  more  rhyme  or  none  at  all.  He 
profited  by  the  advice  of  the  master  of  harmonies, 
as  he  had  profited  by  the  lessons  of  life  —  his 
hard  task-master  —  and  rested  humbly  proud 
that  to  his  faith  and  patience  had  come,  ndt 
once,  but  often,  in  soft  subordination,  "  the  Sun 
shine  of  the  Gods,  the  hour  of  perfect  Song," 
admitting  him  to  the  choice  companionship  of 


216  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

those  whose  fame  he  had  reverenced  and  followed 
afar  off. 

How  in  early  childhood  he  began  to  make 
verses,  and  to  enjoy  the  "  airy  ecstasy  "  of  ima 
gination,  and  to  feel  "  the  first  delicious  thrills 
of  faith  and  pride  "  has  been  already  told.  His 
earliest  incentive  to  poetry  he  has  analyzed  in 
"  The  Picture  of  St.  John." 

"  Our  state  was  humble,  — yet  above  the  dust, 
If  deep  below  the  stars,  —  the  state  that  feeds 
Impatience,  hinting  yet  denying-  needs, 
And  thus,  on  one  side  ever  forward  thrust 
And  on  the  other  cruelly  repressed, 
My  nature  grew,  —  a  wild-flower  in  the  weeds,  — 
And  hurt  by  ignorant  love,  that  fain  had  blessed, 
I  sought  some  other  bliss  wherein  to  rest." 

The  first  timid  collection  of  his  poems,  "  Xi- 
mena,  or  the  Battle  of  the  Sierra  Morena,  and 
other  Poems,"  now  an  extremely  rare  volume,  is 
imitative  and  not  indicative  of  unusual  promise. 

The  "  Ehymes  of  Travel,  Ballads  and  Poems," 
published  in  December,  1848,  was  approvingly 
criticised  by  Edgar  Allan  Poe.  The  qualities 
which  Poe  found  in  "The  Continents,"  glow 
ing  imagination  and  "  sonorous  well-balanced 
rhythm,"  are  precisely  the  merits  of  Taylor's 
maturest  verse.  In  his  "  Epistle  from  Mount 
Tmolus  "  Taylor  refers  to 

"  The  curse 

Or  blessing,  which  has  clung  to  me  from  birth  — 
The  torment  and  the  ecstasy  of  verse." 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  217 

In  his  youth  he  coveted  the  flash  and  glitter  of 
rhetoric,  with  little  consideration  for,  the  sub 
stance  of  poetry.  The  people  of  America  had 
then  what  Charles  Lamb  called  "  the  albuminous 
fever."  Annuals  containing  pretty  poems  were 
cherished  by  the  household;  newspapers  had 
their  poet's  corner  for  artificial  sentiment; 
commonplace  books  were  filled  with  select 
stanzas  and  favorite  fancies  from  Rufus  Dawes, 
and  Grenville  Mellen,  and  Brainard,  and  Sands, 
admiringly  bayoneted  with  exclamation  marks. 
The  prevailing  sentimentality  is  in  the  titles  of 
the  approved  books  of  1840  :  "  Mildred's  Lov 
ers,"  "  The  Jar  of  Honey,  and  other  Poems." 
Bayard  Taylor  began  in  this  environment,  and 
beat  his  way  out  of  the  wilderness  to  symmetri 
cal  conceptions  and  proportioned  Art. 

From  1849  to  1852,  Bayard  Taylor  was  revel 
ing  in  the  delight  of  the  intellect,  and  writing 
poems  in  a  furor.  The  first  adequate  measure 
of  his  lyrical  power  was  "  A  Book  of  Romances, 
Lyrics  and  Songs,"  which  appeared  in  1851.  The 
longest  poem  in  the  collection,  "  Mon-da-min, 
or  the  Romance  of  Maize,"  is  drawn,  like  Hia 
watha,  from  Schoolcraft.  Here,  too,  "  Hylas  " 
is  found,  the  best  of  Taylor's  classical  poems, 
and  worthy  to  stand  beside  all  but  the  best  of 
Walter  Savage  Landor.  Two  Eastern  poems 
prelude  "the  full  meridian  deluge"  of  the 


218  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  Poems  of  the  Orient."  Both  these,  "  Kubleh," 
and  "The  Soldier  and  the  Pard,"  illustrate 
Taylor's  skill  in  narrative  verse  and  his  love  for 
all  animal  creation.  "  Hassan  to  his  Mare  " 
and  the  capital  ballad  "  Eric  and  Axel  "  are 
among  the  finest  poems  on  the  horse  that  our 
literature  contains. 

Taylor  makes  his  Lars  say, 

"  The  honest  things 
Like  him  that  likes  them,  over  all  the  world." 

and  the  poor  creatures  of  earth  seemed  to  be  at 
tracted  to  Taylor  in  the  same  way  that  men  were. 
"The  Poems  of  the  Orient"  (1854)  is 
the  highest  expression  of  Taylor's  delight  in 
the  world.  It  contains  the  best  of  his  lyrical 
genius,  and  the  most  brilliant  of  his  purely 
sensuous  verse.  It  was  his  custom  to  copy  his 
poems  for  the  printer.  The  neatly  written  and 
faultless  manuscripts  that  he  furnished  to  his 
publishers  have  misled  some  of  his  critics  into 
thinking  that  he  wrote  without  correction. 
However  rapid  might  be  his  dispatch  of  prose 
composition,  he  thought  long  over  his  verse, 
and  fashioned  it  with  conscience  and  with 
care.  After  he  had  completed  his  translation 
of  the  first  part  of  "  Faust,"  he  proceeded,  with 
that  amazing  industry  of  the  hand  which  is  one 
of  his  remarkable  characteristics,  to  copy  it  in 
exquisite  caligraphy  into  a  book.  From  this 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  219 

book  he  copied  the  whole  once  more  for  the 
printer,  nor  resting  here,  again  reproduced  it  in 
his  own  hand  for  a  gift  of  friendship. 

The  reiterated  writing  seemed  to  direct  his 
attention  to  blemishes  that  otherwise  lurked  un 
seen.  Writing  was  a  great  pleasure  to  him. 
"  Do  you  know  anything  more  fascinating  than 
a  great  white  virgin  sheet  of  paper  ?  "  he  would 
sometimes  ask.  "  Lars  "  and  "  The  Prophet " 
and  "  Prince  Deukalion  "  he  copied  into  books 
which  are  now  in  the  library  of  Harvard  Uni 
versity.  The  poems  that  he  brought  back  with 
him  from  the  Orient,  and  which  were  published 
in  1854,  he  copied  into  a  manuscript  book 
which  is  now  in  the  possession  of  Kichard  Henry 
Stoddard,  and  from  it  may  be  learned  the  date 
of  the  composition  of  each  of  the  "  Poems  of  the 
Orient."  * 

There  is  perpetual  delight  in  these  poems  for 
him  who  loves  a  lyric  line.  They  do  not  cloy 
with  monotonous  sweetness  like  Moore's  Oriental 
idyls,  nor  weary  with  unpoetic  diffuseness  like 
Southey's  never  ending  epics.  They  teach  the 
eternal  calm  and  brooding  thought  of  the  East. 
They  relate  stories  that  are  full  of  dramatic  force 
and  fire,  — "  The  Temptation  of  Hassan  Ben 
Khaled,"  and  "  Amran's  Wooing,"  are  fasci 
nating  narratives  deftly  told.  In  one  golden 

1  The  dates  of  these  poems  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 


220  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

moment  he  minted  the  shining  song  whose  im 
mortality  one  feels  to  be  secure.  Beyond  a 
doubt  the  magnificent  "  Bedouin  Song  "  is  a  dis 
tinct  addition  to  the  imperishable  things  of  our 
literature. 

"  From  the  Desert  I  come  to  thee 
On  a  stallion  shod  with  fire  ; 
And  the  winds  are  left  behind 
In  the  speed  of  my  desire. 
Under  thy  window  I  stand, 
And  the  midnight  hears  my  cry : 
I  love  thee,  I  love  hut  thee, 
With  a  love  that  shall  not  die 

Till  the  sun  grows  cold, 

And  the  stars  are  old, 

And  the  leaves  of  the  Judgment  Book  unfold  I 

"  Look  from  thy  window  and  see 
My  passion  and  my  pain  ; 
I  lie  on  the  sands  below, 
And  I  faint  in  thy  disdain. 
Let  the  night  winds  touch  thy  brow 
With  the  heat  of  my  burning  sigh, 
And  melt  thee  to  hear  the  vow 
Of  a  love  that  shall  not  die 

Till  the  sun  grows  cold, 

And  the  stars  are  old, 

And  the  leaves  of  the  Judgment  Book  unfold  I 

"  My  steps  are  nightly  driven, 
By  the  fever  in  my  breast, 
To  hear  from  thy  lattice  breathed 
The  word  that  shall  give  me  rest. 
Open  the  door  of  thy  heart, 
And  open  thy  chamber  door, 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  221 

And  my  kisses  shall  teach  thy  lips 
The  love  that  shall  fade  no  more 

Till  the  sun  grows  cold, 

And  the  stars  are  old, 

And  the  leaves  of  the  Judgment  Book  unfold  !  " 

Taylor's  "  Orientalities "  had  what  Moore, 
and  Southey,  and  Monckton  Milnes'  "  Palm- 
Leaves,"  and  Yictor  Hugo's  "  Les  Orientales  " 
lacked,  —  a  profound  and  vital  appreciation  of 
the  life  of  the  East.  Ross  Browne's  Syrian 
dragoman,  when  he  listened  to  the  reading  of 
"  Hassan  to  his  Mare,"  "  sprang  up  with  tears 
in  his  eyes,  and  protested  that  the  Arabs  talked 
just  that  way  to  their  horses." 

A  poem,  that  is  now  printed  among  the 
"  Poems  of  the  Orient,"  but  which  was  not 
written  until  May,  1869,  entitled  "  Shekh  Ah- 
naf's  Letter  from  Baghdad,"  met  with  unfavor 
able  comment  as  an  improbable  and  unreal 
creation.  It  was  declined  by  the  "  Atlantic 
Monthly,"  partly  on  account  of  its  length,  and 
partly  because  of  its  lack  of  dramatic  truth. 
Yet  here  as  always  Taylor  was  sure  of  his  sub 
ject,  and  was  proceeding  upon  actual  knowledge 
where  his  critics  were  walking  in  ignorance. 
He  wrote  to  William  D.  Howells :  "  The  letter 
is  genuine  ;  that  is,  such  a  letter  describing  just 
such  a  scene,  was  written  from  Bagdad  by  a 
Morocco  Moslem ;  and  I  should  not  much  won- 


222  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

der  if  the  very  things  that  might  seem  out  of 
keeping  with  the  character,  to  a  reader,  were 
the  things  which  the  Shekh  did  write.  I  found 
the  letter  a  few  weeks  ago,  and  I  altered  no 
thing  of  his  tone  and  manner,  in  the  poem. 
Therein  he  seemed  to  me  especially  Moslem. 
This  is  a  private  explanation  in  my  own  justi 
fication  ;  for  I  can  easily  see  what  must  have 
appeared  to  you  forced  and  undramatic.  The 
letter  made  a  deep  impression  upon  me,  so  much 
so  that  I  cannot  dissociate  it  from  the  poem, 
and  am  therefore  less  able  to  judge  objectively 
how  it  might  strike  another."1 

Rich  imagery  and  conscientious  finish  are 
the  chiefest  characteristics  of  these  Oriental 
poems.  The  restraint  or  abstinence  exerted  by 
a  writer  so  young  and  so  ardent  is  more  remark 
able  than  the  tropical  opulence  of  Hugo  or 
the  magical  melody  of  Riickert.  "  Daughter  of 
Egypt,  veil  thine  eyes  ! "  and  "  When  Camadeva 
came "  are  models  of  artistic  proportion  and 
repression.  The  first  challenges  a  comparison 
with  anything  of  the  same  kind  in  literature. 
There  are  some  Elizabethan  and  Caroline  lyrics 
of  release  and  delight  that  are  finer  in  their 
way,  but  Taylor's  song  presents  the  moral  na 
ture  recoiling  upon  the  passionate  and  holding 
it  in  suppression. 

1  Written  at  Cedarcroft,  May  10, 1869. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  223 

"  Daughter  of  Egypt,  veil  thine  eyes  I 

I  cannot  bear  their  fire  ; 
Nor  will  I  touch  with  sacrifice 

Those  altars  of  Desire. 
For  they  are  flames  that  shun  the  day, 

And  their  unholy  light 
Is  fed  from  natures  gone  astray 

In  passion  and  in  night. 

"  The  stars  of  Beauty  and  of  Sin, 

They  burn  amid  the  dark, 
Like  beacons  that  to  ruin  win 

The  fascinated  bark. 
Then  veil  their  glow,  lest  I  forswear 

The  hopes  thou  canst  not  crown, 
And  in  the  black  waves  of  thy  hair 

My  struggling  manhood  drown  !  " 

"  Camadeva  "  is  the  attempt  to  express  the 
most  stupendous  conception  of  the  Hindu  myth 
ology,  —  the  saturation  or  suffusion  of  the  uni* 
verse  with  the  divinity  of  love. 

"  All  breathing  life  a  newer  spirit  quaffed, 

A  second  life,  a  bliss  beyond  a  name, 
And  Death,  half-conquered,  dropped  his  idle  shaft 
When  Camadeva  came." 

Lowell  feared  that  Bayard  Taylor  might  be 
come  too  deeply  enamored  of  the  sensuous  in 
poetry,  but  when  the  wonder  book  that  con 
tained  the  best  of  Taylor's  endeavor  prior  to 
his  thirtieth  year  was  closed,  his  style  seemed 
to  lose  its  fervor  and  intense  expression.  The 
scents  and  secrets  of  the  East  vanished,  and 


224  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Taylor   passed   from   the   sensuous  toward  the 
psychological.     In  "  L'Envoi  "  he  bids  — 

"  Unto  the  Desert  and  the  Desert  steed 

Farewell !     The  journey  is  completed  now  : 
Struck  are  the  tents  of  Ishmael's  wandering  breed,    . 
And  I  unwind  the  turban  from  my  brow. 

"  The  sun  has  ceased  to  shine ;  the  palms  that  bent, 

Inebriate  with  light,  have  disappeared ; 
And  naught  is  left  me  of  the  Orient 

But  the  tanned  bosom  and  the  unshorn  beard." 

He  made  a  further  collection  of  his  poems, 
including  a  number  of  new  ones,  and  published, 
in  1855,  "  Poems  of  Home  and  Travel."  Then 
supervened  a  long  period  when  but  little  poetry 
was  written.  He  was  fighting  hard  for  free 
dom  to  live  the  life  of  which  he  dreamed  and 
for  which  he  planned.  When  Cedarcroft  was 
acquired  the  poetical  faculty  reasserted  itself. 
The  great  sorrow  that  had  overshadowed  his 
young  life  in  the  death  of  his  first  wife,  and 
had  driven  him  to  foreign  lands  to  ease  the 
restless  anguish  of  his  heart,  now  found  its 
voice  in  many  poems  that  uttered  the  sad  expe 
rience  he  had  known.  "  Poets  learn  in  sadness 
what  they  teach  in  song."  Goethe  said  that 
he  disposed  of  his  griefs  by  putting  them  in  a 
book.  The  memorable  comparison  of  Thomas 
Moore  reminds  us  that  it  is  the  wounded  tree 
that  drops  the  healing  gum.  "  The  Phantom," 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  225 

"  Moan,  ye  wild  winds  around  the  pane !  "  and 
"She  came,  long  absent  from  my  side,"  are 
examples  of  the  poems  that  commemorate  the 
romantic  attachment  of  Taylor's  youth  and  its 
tragedy.  When  rest  came,  and  his  family  was 
at  home  at  Cedarcroft,  he  gathered  the  recollec 
tions  of  his  moods,  and  told  the  story  of  his 
voyage  from  pain  to  peace,  in  "The  Poet's 
Journal"  (1862).  He  was  vexed  that  the 
publishers  should  have  advertised  the  book  as 
the  record  of  his  life,  for  its  associations  were 
too  sacred  for  the  public  square.  He  insisted 
that  Ernest  was  but  one  half  himself,  and 
Edith  only  one  fourth  his  wife,  but  the  mischief 
had  been  done  and  the  book  that  he  should 
always  most  have  prized  became  an  almost 
painful  memory.  He  had  melted  his  sorrows 
and  had  run  them  into  a  mould  from  which  he 
lifted  a  form  of  beauty  that  was  a  benefaction 
to  the  world.  This  was  the  spirit  in  which  the 
work  was  performed :  — 

"  This  arbor,  too,  was  Ernest's  hermitage  : 
Here  he  had  read  to  me  his  tear-stained  page 
Of  sorrow,  here  renewed  the  pang  supreme 
Which  burned  his  youth  to  ashes ;  here  would  try 
To  lay  his  burden  in  the  hands  of  Song, 
And  make  the  Poet  bear  the  Lover's  wrong. 
But  still  his  heart  impatiently  would  cry  : 
*  In  vain,  in  vain !     You  cannot  teach  to  flow 
Jn  measured  lines  so  measureless  a  woe, 
First  learn  to  slay  this  wild  beast  of  despair, 
Then  from  his  harmless  jaws  your  honey  tear  I ' n 


226  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

No  part  of  "  The  Poet's  Journal  "  is  superior 
to  the  verses  with  which  the  book  begins,  in 
scribed  "To  the  Mistress  of  Cedarcroft,"  — 
and  closing  :  — 

"  Come,  for  my  task  is  done  :  the  task  that  drew 
My  footsteps  from  the  chambers  of  the  Day,  — 
That  held  me  back,  Beloved,  even  from  you, 
That  are  my  daylight ;  for  the  Poet's  way 
Turns  into  many  a  lonely  avenue 
Where  none  may  follow.     He  must  sing1  his  lay 
First  to  himself,  then  to  the  One  most  dear ; 
Last,  to  the  World.     Come  to  my  side,  and  hear ! 

The  poems  ripened  in  a  heart  at  rest, 

A  life  that  first  through  you  is  free  and  strong, 

Take  them  and  warm  them  in  your  partial  breast, 

Before  they  try  the  common  air  of  song  ! 

Fame  won  at  home  is  of  all  fame  the  best ; 

Crown  me  your  poet,  and  the  critic's  wrong 

Shall  harmless  strike  when  you  in  love  have  smiled, 

Wife  of  my  heart,  and  mother  of  my  child !  " 

The  entire  poem  is  the  glorification  of  family 
love,  in  its  wholeness  and  its  wholesomeness. 

In  June,  1850,  he  began  to  meditate  a  poem 
whose  theme  was  pictorial  art.  He  had  then, 
he  said,  "  no  more  serious  purpose  than  to  write 
a  narrative  poem  of  love  and  sorrow,  with  an 
artist  as  the  hero."  Either  through  a  temporary 
failure  of  fancy,  or  a  feeling  of  inadequacy  to 
the  task,  he  deferred  completing  the  poem. 
Wherever  he  traveled  the  book  went  with  him 
and  grew  with  slow  additions.  In  St.  Peters- 


POEMS  AND  PLATS.  227 

burg,  after  the  completion  of  "  Hannah  Thurs- 
ton,"  he  resumed  the  poem  in  earnest,  and  fin 
ished  it  in  1865,  in  the  same  year  with  "  The 
Story  of  Kennett,"  in  a  fury  of  composition, 
"  utterly  absorbed,  distrait,  and  lost  for  the  ma 
terial  aspects  of  life."  He  named  it  "  The  Pic 
ture  of  St.  John,"  and  dedicated  it  to  his  artist 
friends,  Kensett,  McEntee,  Gifford,  "Church, 
Colman,  Whittredge,  and  Eastman  Johnson. 
Of  all  that  company  only  Eastman  Johnson  and 
F.  E.  Church  are  now  alive.  An  early  love 
of  color  and  form,  and  a  certain  skill  in  draw 
ing,  Taylor  had  never  entirely  neglected.  From 
his  rambles  abroad  he  brought  home  with  him 
sketches  in  oil  and  in  water  colors,  of  the  land 
scapes  and  monuments  that  had  impressed  him. 
In  the  Proem,  "  To  the  Artists,"  he  wrote  :  — 

"  Because  the  dream,  thus  cherished,  gave  my  life 
Its  first  faint  sense  of  beauty,  and  became 
Even  when  the  growing1  years  to  other  strife 
Led  forth  my  feet,  a  shy,  secluded  flame : 
And  ye  received  me,  when  our  pathways  met, 
As  one  long  parted,  but  of  kindred  fate  ; 
And  in  one  heaven  our  kindred  stars  are  set ; 
To  you,  my  Brethren,  this  be  dedicate !  " 

Through  the  orderly  and  harmonic  celebra 
tion  of  the  artist's  life  that  follows,  runs  the  sus 
taining  thought  of  the  development  of  the  artist's 
power  through  his  sympathy  with  the  joy  and 
with  the  suffering  of  life.  The  latter  is  the 


228  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

common  theme  of  song  everywhere  in  literature, 
the  former  is  the  rarer  and  higher  spirit  that  in 
spires  "  The  Kime  of  the  Ancient  Mariner." 

"  I  loved  my  work ;  and  therefore  vowed  to  love 
All  subjects,  finding  Art  in  everything1,  — 
The  angel's  plumage  in  the  bird's  plain  wing,  — 
Until  such  time  as  I  might  rise  above 
The  conquered  matter,  to  the  power  supreme 
Whicn  takes,  rejects,  adorns,  —  a  rightful  king, 
Whose  hand  completes  the  subtly-hinted  scheme 
And  blends  in  equal  truth  the  Fact  and  Dream  I " 

After  the  first  great  sorrow  of  his  life  the  Ital 
ian  artist  seeks  a  half  forgetfulness  in  the  cun 
ning  copying  of  Nature.  He  paints 

"  Each  leaf  and  vein  of  meadow-blossoms  pale, 
The  agate's  streaks,  the  meal  of  mothy  wings  !  " 

And  when  his  soul  is  purged  of  the  horrors 
that  possessed  it,  and  his  mind  is  cleansed  of 
"  the  unclean  things  that  kept  leets  and  law-days 
there,"  he  says  :  — 

"  I  wandered  forth  ;  and  lo  !  the  halcyon  world 
Of  sleeping  wave,  and  velvet-folded  hill, 
And  stainless  air  and  sunshine,  lay  so  still ! 
No  mote  of  vapor  on  the  mountains  curled  ; 
But  lucid,  gem-like,  blissful,  as  if  sin 
Or  more  than  gentlest  grief  had  never  been, 
Each  lovely  thing,  of  tint  that  shone  impearled, 
As  dwelt  some  dim  beatitude  therein  ! 

"  So  God's  benignant  hand  directing  wrought, 
And  Man  and  Nature  took  me  back  to  life. 
My  cry  was  hushed :  the  forms  of  child  and  wife 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  229 

Smiled  from  a  solemn,  moonlit  land  of  thought, 
A  realm  of  peaceful  sadness.     Sad,  yet  strong, 
My  soul  stood  up,  threw  off  its  robes  of  strife, 
And  quired  anew  the  world-old  human  song,  — 
Accepting  patience  and  forgetting  wrong !  " 

The  poem  immediately  gave  Bayard  Taylor 
an  assured  place  among  the  poets  of  America. 
Longfellow  called  it  "  a  great  poem,  —  noble, 
sustained,  and  beautiful  from  beginning  to 
end ; "  Lowell  decided  that  no  American  poem 
except  "The  Golden  Legend"  could  match  it  in 
finish  and  sustained  power  ;  and  Joseph  Knight, 
in  the  "  Fortnightly  Review "  (March,  1867), 
passing  upon  the  genius  of  Taylor,  said,  "  He 
has  not  the  earnestness  of  Longfellow,  the  wit 
of  Lowell,  or  the  breadth  of  Holmes,  but  in  deli 
cacy  of  workmanship  and  wealth  of  suggestion 
he  transcends  them  all." 

The  stanza  in  which  Taylor  chose  to  cast  this 
romantic  epic  of  three  thousand  one  hundred 
and  seventy  -  six  lines,  was  the  ottava  rima, 
treated  as  in  the  "  Oberon  "  of  Wieland.  Hook- 
ham  Frere  in  "  The  Monks  and  the  Giants," 
Byron  in  "  Don  Juan,"  Moultrie  in  "  Godiva," 
and  the  Etonians  in  general  had,  in  their  narra 
tive  verse,  used  the  Italian  stanza  with  the  added 
spice  of  humor  to  relieve  its  uniform  sweetness. 
Taylor  secured  a  felicitous  effect  by  capriciously 
varying  the  order  of  the  rhymes  in  the  stanza, 
introducing  more  than  seventy  variations,  and  so 


230  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

producing  an  arabesqueness  of  design  that  filled 
the  poem  with  surprises.  The  unrestrained 
movement  of  the  melody  may  be  appreciated 
from  the  following  stanzas  :  — 

"  I  found  a  girl  before  San  Marco's  shrine 
Kneeling  in  gilded  gloom  :  her  tawny  hair 
Rippled  across  voluptuous  shoulders  bare, 
And  something  in  the  altar-taper's  shine 
Sparkled  like  falling  tears.     This  girl  shall  be 
My  sorrowing  Magdalen,  as  guilty-sweet, 
I  said,  as  when,  pure  Christ !  she  knelt  to  thee, 
And  laid  her  blushing  forehead  on  thy  feet ! 

"  She  sat  before  me.     Like  a  sunny  brook 
Poured  the  unbraided  ripples  softly  round 
The  balmy  dells,  but  left  one  snowy  mound 
Bare  in  its  beauty  :  then  I  met  her  look,  — 
The  conquering  gaze  of  those  bold  eyes,  which  made, 
Ah,  God !  the  unrepented  sin  more  fair 
Than  Magdalen  kneeling  with  her  humbled  hair, 
Or  Agatha  beneath  the  quaestor's  blade  !  " 

The  chief  defect  of  the  poem  is  a  certain  im 
maturity  of  conception  and  juvenility  of  phrase. 
The  "Proem,"  in  which  Taylor  dubs  his  friends 
Opal,  Bloodstone,  Topaz,  and  Jacinth,  is  in  pre 
cisely  the  vein  which,  in  another,  Taylor  would 
have  been  the  first  to  censure  for  affectation. 

"  The  Picture  of  St.  John  "  marks  the  close 
of  the  second  stage  of  Bayard  Taylor's  develop 
ment  as  a  poet.  He  was  soon  absorbed  in  the 
study  of  Goethe,  and  his  mind  was  taking  on 
the  cast  of  thought  that  was  to  determine  his 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  231 

future  literary  product,  the  first  fruit  of  which 
was  "The  Masque  of  the  Gods"  (1872).  He 
said  of  his  studies  at  this  time :  "  I  read  first  of 
all  Goethe,  then  Montaigne,  Burton,  Mill,  Buckle, 
Matthew  Arnold,  and  the  old  English  poets ;  of 
the  modern,  chiefly  Wordsworth,  Tennyson,  and 
Clough.  Ruskin  and  Carlyle  serve  as  entrees. 
I  abhor  everything  spasmodic  and  sensational, 
and  aim  at  the  purest,  simplest,  quietest  style  in 
whatever  I  write.  My  ideal  is  as  far  off  as  ever, 
but  it  has  at  least  taken  a  clear,  definite  shape. 
Instead  of  mist  I  see  form.  I  have  lost  some 
thing  of  lyrical  heat  and  passion,  but  gained  in 
feeling  of  proportion  and  construction."  The 
direction  of  his  mind,  as  indicated  by  his  read 
ing,  was  evidently  toward  the  religious  and  the 
ethical.  He  was  unusually  familiar  with  the 
Bible,  and  when  the  "  Protestantenbibel "  ap 
peared,  he  studied  it  with  keen  interest.  He 
followed  with  close  attention  the  researches  of 
Ebers  and  Lepsius  in  Egyptology,  but  found 
little  to  sympathize  with  in  Strauss,  or  in  any 
of  the  works  of  sheer  negation.  "  I  have  been 
reading,"  he  writes  to  J.  B.  Phillips,  March  23, 
1871,  u  '  Ecce  Homo '  and  Darwin  lately,  and  am 
full  of  all  sorts  of  prohibited  doubts,  for  which 
God  be  thanked !  —  since  doubt  is  always  the 
first  step  towards  knowledge.  Theological  ruts 
are  the  worst  pitfalls  under  our  feet." 


232  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

Clearly  the  poems  of  his  later  years  were  to 
partake  more  of  his  searchings  of  the  infinite, 
and  his  wrestlings  with  the  problems  of  philoso 
phy,  than  of  the  alert  and  light-hearted  curiosity 
with  which  he  had  hitherto  looked  about  him  in 
the  world,  and  blithely  told  his  visions  in  lyric 
song.  The  loss  of  youthful  freshness  and  de 
light  was  not  to  be  compensated  for  by  philo 
sophical  reflection ;  and  the  admixture  of  meta 
physics  effectually  precipitated  the  poetry  in 
"Prince  Deukalion"  and  "The  Prophet." 

"  The  Masque  of  the  Gods  "  was  an  inspira 
tion.  It  was  written  at  white  heat  in  four  days ; 
and  Taylor  always  regarded  it  as  his  best  work. 
"Masque"  seems  an  unfortunate  word  to  de 
scribe  a  dramatic  work  so  lofty  in  its  intention, 
whose  theme  is  the  evolution  of  the  human  con 
ception  of  the  Deity.  Three  dialogues  in  the 
classical  manner  present,  as  Taylor  defined  the 
meaning  of  the  book,  "  First,  a  colossal  reflec 
tion  of  human  powers  and  passions,  mixed  with 
the  dread  inspired  by  the  unknown  forces  of 
nature;  then,  the  idea  of  Law  (Elohim),  of 
Order  and  Beauty  and  Achievement  (Jove  and 
Apollo),  and  of  the  principles  of  Good  and  Evil 
(Persian),  and  of  the  Divine  Love  (Christ). 
But  over  all  is  the  One  supreme  Spirit,  yet  un 
named,  and  whom  men  only  now  begin  to  con 
ceive  of,  —  the  God  of  whom  all  previous  gods 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  233 

gave  only  faint  and  various  reflections,  —  to 
whom  Christ  is  still  nearest,  but  who  was  also 
felt,  more  or  less  dimly,  in  all  creeds." 

Christ,  the  revelation  in  man  of  the  Divine 
Love,  and  Apollo,  the  representative  of  Art  and 
Beauty,  exist  together  in  the  poem,  not  in  antag 
onism,  but  in  harmony ;  indicating  the  corre 
sponding  nature  of  the  beauty  of  holiness  and 
the  holiness  of  beauty. 

"  One's  face  is  fairer  than  the  star  of  morning ; 
One's  voice  is  sweeter  than  the  dew  of  Hermon 
To  flowers  that  wither :  who  is  there  beside  them  ? 
And  is  there  need  of  any  one  above  him 
Who  brings  his  gifts  of  good  and  love  and  mercy  ? 
We  climb  to  nobler  knowledge,  finer  senses, 
And  every  triumph  brings  diviner  promise, 
But  Life  is  more  :  our  souls  for  other  waters 
Were  sore  athirst,  till  He  unlocked  the  fountain. 
Now  let  us  drink ;  for  as  a  hart  that  panteth, 
Escaped  from  spears  across  the  burning  desert, 
We  think  to  drain  the  brook,  yet  still  it  floweth." 

The  lyrical  interludes  and  chorus  of  spirits 
are  in  the  manner  of  Byron's  "  Manfred ; "  but 
Taylor's  spirits  talk  better  sense  and  poetry 
than  Byron's,  however  inferior  the  dramatic  en 
vironment  of  the  "  Masque  "  is  to  Byron's  high 
imagination. 

Longfellow  was  delighted  with  the  work,  and 
said  to  Taylor  that  he  might  now  "  safely  write 
under  it,  Fecit,  fecit,  the  double  mark  of  Titian." 

Taylor   often    composed   a   poem    before   he 


234  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

wrote  a  line  of  it.  His  rapid  dispatch  of  work 
therefore  was  misleading.  Poems  were  held  in 
suspension  in  his  mi*. "  -~til  ready  to  be  trans 
ferred  to  paper.  When  he  was  meditating  upon 
the  "  Centennial  Ode,"  a  difficult  and  responsi 
ble  task,  and  some  time  before  he  actually  began 
to  write,  he  said,  using  a  singular  figure,  "  the 
string  is  in  soak,  and  the  thought  is  crystalliz 
ing  upon  it."  With  him  the  rule  was  first  inspi 
ration,  then  drudgery.  The  thought  of  "The 
Picture  of  St.  John "  he  carried  with  him  for 
fifteen  years.  "  The  Masque  of  the  Gods," 
though  written  in  four  days,  was  long  beforehand 
complete  in  his  memory.  Wordsworth  and  Ten 
nyson  sometimes  lost  poems  that  they  had  devel 
oped  in  thought :  Taylor's  memory  never  turned 
traitor.  After  the  first  draft  he  frequently  re 
wrote  his  poems,  often  changing  their  metrical 
form.  Several  times  he  recast  "  Orso's  Ven 
detta,"  "The  Two  Greetings,"  and  "The  Two 
Homes." 

He  never  realized  his  conception  more  com 
pletely  than  in  the  idyllic  narrative  poem, 
"  Lars :  A  Pastoral  of  Norway,"  which,  although 
published  in  1873,  had  been  silently  fixing  itself 
to  form  for  six  years.  It  is  historical  that  a 
community  of  Friends  existed  at  Arendal  in 
Norway :  Quaker  quiet  by  the  shoulder  of  Ber 
serk  rage.  Taylor's  thought  was  to  link  the  an- 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  235 

cient  pagan  fury  of  the  fells  and  fjords  with  the 
gentle  speech  and  customs  of  the  pastoral  coun 
try  of  Pennsylvania.  So  the  story  begins  and 
ends  in  Norway,  but  the  intermediate  events 
occur  at  Mt.  Cuba,  at  the  end  of  the  Hockessin 
Valley,  in  the  neighborhood  of  Kennett  Square. 
The  poem  is  so  severely  simple,  so  perfectly 
proportioned,  and  so  well  within  the  author's 
powers,  that  it  realized  his  ideal  and  won  a  place 
in  critical  esteem  beside  "  Evangeline,"  and  the 
best  of  Tennyson's  corresponding  verse.  The 
simple  Norway  name  "  Lars  "  becomes  the  sim 
ple  tale,  though  one  learned  Theban  amended 
what  he  thought  to  be  Taylor's  faulty  Latinity 
and  made  the  title  "  Lares." 

"  A  herdsman,  woodman,  hunter,  Lars  was  strong 
Yet  silent  from  his  life  upon  the  hills. 
Beneath  dark  lashes  gleamed  his  darker  eyes 
Like  mountain-tarns  that  take  their  changeless  hue 
From  shadows  of  the  pine  :  in  all  his  ways 
He  showed  that  quiet  of  the  upper  world 
A  breath  can  turn  to  tempest,  and  the  force 
Of  rooted  firs  that  slowly  split  the  stone. 
But  Per  was  gay  with  laughter  of  the  seaa 
Which  were  his  home." 

And  both  these  loved  Brita,  who  was  "  glossy 
as  a  mating  bird." 

Their   rivalry   sets   in   bloody   tragedy,   and 
Lars  leads  exiled  steps  in  foreign  lands. 

"  So  Lars  went  onward,  losing  hope  of  good, 
i      To  where,  upon  her  hill,  fair  Wilmington 


236  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Looks  to  the  river  over  marshy  meads. 

He  saw  the  low  brick  church,  with  stunted  tower, 

The  portal-arches  ivied  now  and  old, 

And  passed  the  gate :  lo  !  there,  the  ancient  stones 

Bore  Norland  names  and  dear,  familiar  words  ! 


"  Led  by  a  faith  that  rest  could  not  be  far, 
Beyond  the  town,  where  deeper  vales  bring  down 
The  winding  brooks  from  Pennsylvanian  hills, 
He  walked  :  the  ordered  farms  were  fair  to  see, 
And  fair  the  peaceful  houses :  old  repose 
Mellowed  the  lavish  newness  of  the  land, 
And  sober  toil  gave  everywhere  the  right 
To  simple  pleasures." 

Again  in  this  calm  land,  love  for  a  pure  and 
gentle  maiden,  Ruth  Mendenhall,  springs  up  like 
a  fountain  in  him,  and  again  the  evil  spirit  in 
his  blood  shrouds  all  his  life  in  red  anger,  and 
leads  him  to  the  edge  of  tragedy,  when,  with 
murder  in  his  heart  and  eye,  he  follows  on  fleet 
foot  his  flying  rival,  Abner  Cloud.  And  at  the 
last  Lars  wins  peace  and  serenity  of  soul  through 
the  love  of  Ruth,  and  on  his  native  Norway  soil 
resists,  like  the  Laird  of  Ury,  the  taunts  and 
challenges  of  the  blood  feud. 

No  poet  ever  returned  with  fonder  recollection 
to  his  humble  birthplace,  or  sought  with  more 
sincere  devotion  to  lift  its  life  and  landscapes 
into  the  clear  air  of  art.  In  the  best  of  his  prose 
works  Taylor  had  made  the  name  of  Kennett 
familiar  to  the  readers  of  two  continents.  In  six 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  237 

pastorals  and  five  ballads  he  interpreted  the 
spiritual  meaning  of  the  lives  and  scenery  that 
lay  beyond  the  oaks  and  chestnuts  of  Cedarcroft. 
The  pastorals  were  written  in  hexameter  verse, 
which  Taylor  had  studied  in  German  literature 
more  than  in  English.  His  construction  was 
four  feet  dactylic,  with  occasional  trochaic  sub 
stitutions,  the  fifth  foot  inevitably  a  dactyl,  the 
line  ending  with  a  trochee  or,  now  and  then,  a 
spondee. 

"  But  since  I  am  sated  with  visions, 

Sated  with  all  the  siren  Past  and  its  rhythmical  phantoms, 
Here  will  I  seek  my  songs  in  the  quiet  fields  of  my  boyhood, 
Here  where  the  peaceful  tent  of  home  is  pitched  for  a  season. 
High  is  the  house  and  sunny  the  lawn  :  the  capes  of  the  wood 
lands, 

Bluff,  and  buttressed  with  many  boughs,  are  gates  to  the  dis 
tance 

Blue  with  hill  over  hill,  that  sink  as  the  pausing  of  music. 
Here  the  hawthorn  blossoms,  the  breeze  is  blithe  in  the  or 
chards, 

Winds  from  the  Chesapeake  dull  the  sharper  edge  of  the  win 
ters, 

Letting  the  cypress  live,  and  the  mounded  box,  and  the  holly ; 
Here  the  chestnuts  fall  and  the  cheeks  of  peaches  are  crimson, 
Ivy  clings  to  the  wall  and  sheltered  fattens  the  fig-tree, 
North  and  South  are  as  one  in  the  blended  growth  of  the  region, 
One  in  the  temper  of  man,  and  ancient,  inherited  habits." 

The  sentiments  of  the  slow,  conservative  farm 
ers  ;  the  "  nasal  monotonous  chorals,  sung  by  the 
sad  congregation  ; "  the  stern  sense  of  duty,  that 

"  Better  it  were  to  sleep  with  the  owl,  to  house  with  the  hornet, 
Than  to  conflict  with  the  satisfied  moral  sense  of  the  people," 


238  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

find  their  expression  in  these  "  pastorals  "  of  one 
who  was  cradled  among  the  people,  who  knew 
them  and  loved  them.  The  peaceful  farms,  too, 

"  The  mossy  roofs  of  the  houses, 

Gables  gray  of  the  neighboring  barns,  and  gleams  of  the  high 
way 
Climbing  the  ridges  beyond  to  dip  in  the  dream  of  a  forest," 

even  the  idle  weeds  that  grow  in  the  sustaining 
corn,  "  the  bitter-sweet,  moon-seed,  and  riotous 
fox-grape,"  are  remembered,  — 

''Flaring  St.  John's  wort,  milk-weed  and  coarse,  nnpoetical 
mullein  ;  — 

Yet,  were  it  not  for  the  poets,  say,  is  the  asphodel  fairer  ? 

Were  not  the  mullein  as  dear,  had  Theocritus  sung  it,  or  Bion  ? 

Yea,  but  they  did  not ;  and  we,  whose  fancy's  tenderest  ten 
drils 

Shoot  unsupported,  and  wither,  for  want  of  a  Past  we  can 
cling  to, 

We,  so  starved  in  the  Present,  so  weary  of  singing  the  Fu 
ture,  — 

What  is  't  to  us  if,  haply,  a  score  of  centuries  later, 

Milk-weed  inspires  Patagonian  tourists,  and  mulleins  are 
classic?" 

Not  Whittier  nor  Barton  nor  any  other  of 
the  Friends  has  written  a  poem  so  dramatically 
true  and  so  replete  with  Quaker  expressions  as 
Taylor's  ballad,  "The  Quaker  Widow,"  fore 
runner  of  "  The  Holly  Tree,"  "  John  Reed," 
"Jane  Reed,"  and  "The  Old  Pennsylvania 
Farmer." 

"  Home  Pastorals,  Ballads  and  Lyrics  "  (1875) 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  239 

contains  also  some  of  Bayard  Taylor's  Odea 
In  his  occasional  poems  made  for  public  com 
memorations  he  essayed  the  Pindaric  measure, 
never,  save  once,  with  popular  success,  but  al 
ways  with  some  degree  of  mechanical  skill. 

The  "  Gettysburg  Ode,"  read  at  the  dedication 
of  the  National  Monument,  July  1,  1869,  as  an 
imposed  task  cost  him  much  trouble.  He  could 
not  bend  himself  to  poetry  with  the  same  prompt 
fluency  with  which  he  performed  the  prose  tasks 
that  were  constantly  set  for  him. 

He  took  the  text  of  the  ode  from  Lincoln's 
address  at  Gettysburg.  » 

"  From  such  a  perfect  text,  shall  song  aspire 
To  light  her  faded  fire, 
And  into  wandering  music  turn 
Its  virtue,  simple,  sorrowful,  and  stern  ? 
His  voice  all  elegies  anticipated ; 
For,  whatsoe'er  the  strain, 
We  hear  that  one  refrain  : 
'  We  consecrate  ourselves  to  them,  the  Consecrated !  '  " 

Less  successful  was  "  Shakespeare's  Statue," 
written  for  the  unveiling  of  J.  Q.  A.  Ward's 
statue  of  Shakespeare  in  Central  Park  (May 
23,  1872).  Another  occasional  poem  was  com 
posed  for  the  Goethe  Club,  to  celebrate  their 
presentation  of  a  bust  of  Goethe  to  be  placed 
in  Central  Park  upon  Goethe's  one  hundred  and 
twenty-sixth  birthday.  Taylor's  estimate  of 
Goethe,  his  admiration  of  his  "  cosinical  ex 


240  SAYAED  TAYLOR. 

perience "    and   symmetrical   culture,   finds   its 
amplest  expression  in  the  closing  stanza :  — 

"  Dear  is  the  Minstrel,  yet  the  Man  is  more ; 

But  should  I  turn  the  pages  of  his  brain, 

The  lighter  muscle  of  ray  verse  would  strain 
And  break  beneath  his  lore. 

How  charge  with  music  powers  so  vast  and  free, 

Save  one  be  great  as  he  ? 
Behold  him,  as  ye  jostle  with  the  throng 
Through  narrow  ways,  that  do  your  beings  wrong, 

Self-chosen  lanes,  wherein  ye  press 

In  louder  Storm  and  Stress, 
Passing  the  lesser  bounty  by 
Because  the  greater  seems  too  high, 

And  that  sublimest  joy  forego, 

To  seek,  aspire,  and  know  ! 
Behold  in  him,  since  our  strong  line  began, 
The  first  f  ull-statured  man ! 

Dear  is  the  Minstrel,  even  to  hearts  of  prose  ; 
But  he  who  sets  all  aspiration  free 
Is  dearer  to  humanity. 

Still  through  our  age  the  shadowy  Leader  goes ; 
Still  whispers  cheer,  or  waves  his  warning  sign  ; 

The  man  who,  most  of  men, 
Heeded  the  parable  from  lips  divine, 

And  made  one  talent  ten  !  " 

General  Hawley,  the  President  of  the  United 
States  Centennial  Commission,  invited  Bayard 
Taylor  to  write  the  hymn  for  the  opening  day 
of  the  Exhibition,  and  asked  him  to  name  some 
one  to  compose  the  cantata.  E.  C.  Stedman, 
who  was  the  choice  of  the  commission,  had  gone 
to  Panama,  and  neither  Theodore  Thomas  nor 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  241 

Dudley  Buck,  the  composer,  would  await  his  re 
turn.  Taylor  proposed  the  name  of  the  South 
ern  poet,  Sidney  Lanier,  whose  acquaintance 
he  had  made  not  many  months  before,  and  for 
the  fine  qualities  of  whose  richly  imaginative 
verse  Taylor  entertained  the  highest  respect  and 
admiration. 

The  commission  had  determined  upon  an 
oration  and  an  ode  for  the  great  day  when  the 
centennial  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
was  to  be  celebrated.  Hon.  William  M.  Evarts 
was  chosen  to  deliver  the  oration,  but  much 
difficulty  was  experienced  in  finding  any  one  to 
accept  the  serious  task  of  composing  the  ode. 
Longfellow  and  Lowell  declined  on  the  score  of 
illness,  Bryant  because  of  age.  Whittier  and 
Holmes  preferred  that  Taylor  should  make  the 
attempt.  When  he  assumed  the  new  duty  he 
withdrew  his  hymn,  and  so  it  happened  that 
Bayard  Taylor,  representing  Pennsylvania,  pro 
duced  the  national  ode,  Georgia  furnished  the 
cantata,  and  Massachusetts  sent  the  hymn  from 
the  pen  of  Whittier,  who  was  by  nature,  as  Tay 
lor  said,  the  high  priest  among  American  writers. 

It  is  not  often  given  to  a  poet  to  read  his  own 
verses  to  listening  thousands  and  to  kindle  the 
public  throng  with  the  lofty  aspirations  of  pa 
triotism.  The  effect  of  Taylor's  reading  was 
electrical  and  wonderful.  He  was  crowded  upon 


242  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

by  the  spontaneous  congratulation  of  the  people, 
and  his  ears  were  dinned  with  the  applause  of 
the  ten  thousand  who  had  heard  and  not  heard 
the  strains  that,  without  manuscript  or  notes,  he 
had  repeated.  He  had  elected  to  compose  the 
ode  in  the  Pindaric  measure,  and,  in  follow 
ing  that  lofty  precedent,  to  measure  himself  by 
the  side  of  Lowell,  and  to  invite  comparison 
with  the  "  Commemoration  Ode."  His  work 
is  nearly  faultless  from  a  technical  point  of 
view,  in  rhyme  and  cadence  the  lines  flow  on  in 
smooth  and  harmonious  succession ;  but  few  of 
the  verses  cling,  like  Lowell's,  to  the  memory, 
and  with  their  high  seriousness  and  grave 
melody  kindle  ennobling  emotions  of  pride  and 
patriotism. 

Taylor's  patriotism  is  exalted  and  inclusive. 
He  is  the  most  cosmopolitan  of  American 
authors. 

"  He  met  the  men  of  many  a  land, 
They  gave  their  souls  into  his  hand." 

He  was  very  comfortable  in  Germany,  and  he 
did  not  hesitate  to  acknowledge  it ;  he  found 
much  in  America  to  reprove  and  to  condemn, 
and  he  did  not  spare  his  censure.  But  never 
for  an  instant  did  he  falter  in  his  allegiance  to 
his  country,  and  his  reverence  for  the  invisible 
ideas  upon  which  the  progress  of  the  nation  is 
borne.  In  the  Odes,  he  has  done  justice  to 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  243 

patriotism,  and  in  doing  ample  justice  to  the 
heroic  type  of  character  he  has  not  breathed  a 
syllable  that  could  be  construed  into  a  glorifica 
tion  of  war.  Stopford  Brooke  has  found  fault 
with  Tennyson  for  celebrating  the  brutalities  of 
human  struggle  ;  no  later  critic  can  discover  the 
sentiment  in  Taylor. 

Poetry  was  a  veritable  priestcraft  with  Bay 
ard  Taylor,  It  was  his  religion,  and  was  to  be 
approached  only  in  serious  mood.  In  his  high 
conception  art  became  a  redemptive  addition 
to  human  life.  Although  he  was  gifted  with 
the  acutest  sense  of  humor,  sometimes  flashing 
into  uproarious  mirth,  his  conscientious  consecra 
tion  to  poetry  forbade  the  intrusion  of  it  into 
his  verse.  He  could  no  more  disturb  his  verse 
with  humor  than  the  priest  at  the  altar  could 
pervert  his  sacred  function.  To  the  American 
humorist  there  is  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  neither 
bond  nor  free.  Even  Lowell  is  not  free  from 
sin  in  this  particular.  A  jarring  note  grates  on 
the  reader  of  "  The  Cathedral  "  when  its  solemn 
thought  is  interrupted  by  an  unnecessary  comic 
digression. 

For  those  who  listened  only  to  the  tinkling 
cymbal  Taylor  frequently  expressed  his  con 
tempt,  — 

"  The  dainty  souls  that  crave 
Light  stepping-stones  across  a  shallow  wave, 
Shrink  from  the  deeps  of  Goethe's  soundless  song." 


244  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

The  only  play  of  humorous  verse  that  he  per 
mitted  was  the  occasional  indulgence  of  an  un 
usual  genius  for  parody.  Like  Talleyrand  he 
found  nonsense  singularly  refreshing.  Upon  his 
Sunday  evenings  at  home  in  New  York  he  con 
vulsed  his  guests  with  his  volleys  of  puns  and 
parodies.  At  Fields'  and  at  Graham's  he  set 
the  table  in  a  roar  with  his  ridiculous  improvisa 
tions  and  his  extraordinary  quotations.  His  was 
the  famous  etymology  of  restaurant,  from  res,  a 
thing,  and  taurus,  a  bull :  "  a  bully  thing."  He 
demanded  to  know  of  a  scholar  who  persisted 
in  monopolizing  the  conversation  with  a  disser 
tation  upon  the  sun  myth,  whether  he  knew 
the  etymology  of  Smith  ;  and,  setting  scornfully 
aside  the  philological  answer,  asserted  its  deri 
vation  from  "  Sun-Myth  "  —  Sumyth,  Smyth, 
Smith. 

His  readiness  was  so  remarkable  that  he  could 
improvise  for  a  whole  evening  in  either  English 
or  German.  Professor  W.  T.  Hewett,  writing 
to  me  of  Taylor's  remarkable  power  of  impro 
visation,  gives  the  following  amusing  illustra 
tion  :  — 

"  I  recall  well  an  evening  spent  with  him  and 
a  colleague  at  Mrs.  P.'s  (Pennock's).  Mr.  Tay 
lor  was  in  fine  spirits  and  full  of  droll  sallies  and 
humorous  stories.  He  turned  to  my  colleague 
and  said:  'F.,  do  you  remember  that  poem 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  245 

which  you  wrote  for  one  of  the  first  numbers 
of  the  Atlantic  I'—F.  4  No,  I  do  not  recall  it 
at  the  present  time.'  -  T.  'I remember  it  very 
well.'  —  F.  4  Perhaps,  as  you  remember  it 
better  than  I  do,  you  will  repeat  it  to  the  com 
pany.' —  T.  '  Certainly,  with  pleasure.'  There 
upon  Mr.  Taylor  began  a  long  recital  of  the  most 
desperate  rhymes,  the  most  astounding  plati 
tudes,  and  the  most  infamous  verse  which  an 
unanointed  singer  ever  attempted.  My  clever 
friend  was  without  a  retort.  He  had  rashly  chal 
lenged  the  production  of  what  he  knew  did  not 
exist,  but  when  Mr.  Taylor's  marvelous  memory 
had  brought  forth  from  its  recesses  an  apparent 
poem  of  his  own,  the  product  of  his  unleavened 
youth,  he  was  discomfited  as  I  have  never  seen 
him  since.  I  believe  that  the  company  of  young 
people  accepted  absolutely  my  friend  F.  as  the 
author.  I  do  not  quote  this  as  a  specimen  of 
improvisation,  but  I  have  no  doubt  that  impro 
visation  entered  into  the  marvelous  product  and 
aided  memory  in  numerous  emergencies." 

Years  before  Lewis  Carroll  had  begun  his  ex 
quisite  imbecility  of  "portmanteau  words,"  Tay 
lor  and  Stoddard  and  O'Brien,  in  their  mid 
night  frolics  with  the  eccentric  muse,  had 
created  verses  that  anticipated  "  The  Lay  of  the 
Jabberwock."  Taylor  cited  as  an  example  of 
his  own  perverse  imagination  the  lines :  — 


246  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  Smitten  by  harsh  transcetic  thuds  of  shame 
My  squelgence  fades  :  I  mogrif y  my  blame  : 
The  lupkin  world,  that  leaves  me  yole  and  blaut, 
Denies  my  affligance  with  looks  askant." 

When  Edward  Lear's  "  Book  of  Nonsense  " 
was  young,  verses  of  like  character  were  made 
by  the  New  York  triumvirate  after  they  wearied 
of  parody.  American  literature  in  the  latter 
sixties  showed  tendencies  with  which  Taylor 
had  no  sympathy.  Dialect  verse  he  despised 
and  Western  slang  he  abhorred.  When  dialect 
abounded  and  vulgarity  did  much  more  abound, 
American  literature  showed  herself  in  some 
sections  a  poor  and  ill  -  favored  thing,  —  an 
Audrey  with  raddled  cheeks  and  kohl-smeared 
eyes.  Certain  preposterous  but  popular  poems 
of  farm  life,  in  one  of  which  the  author  makes 
an  American  farmer  say  to  his  son,  "  Dowse  the 
glim  !  "  excited  the  mirth  of  Taylor,  who  said : 
"  One  can  only  laugh  over  such  phenomenon ;  it 
does  n't  pay  to  be  angry,  and  the  public,  if  let 
alone,  will  soon  weary  of  its  golden  calves."  l 

Partly  to  prick  the  pretensions  of  some  of  the 
portified  posturers  whose  dervish  tricks  were 
attracting  attention ;  partly  to  gratify  his  keen 
sense  of  humor,  and  "to  interpose  a  little  ease " 
in  the  busy  race  of  toil,  he  composed  burlesque 

1  Letter  to  J.  B.  Phillips,  written  at  Kennett  Square,  Sep. 
tember  11,  1871. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  247 

imitations  of  authors,  living  and  dead,  knit  them 
together  by  the  subterfuge  of  imaginary  charac 
ters  and  a  Broadway  beer-cellar,  and  published 
the  series  under  the  title  "  The  Echo  Club  and 
other  Literary  Diversions  "  (1872  and  1876). 

It  was  not  altogether  parody,  for  there  lurked 
amid  the  fun  much  suggestive  history  and  criti 
cism  of  our  literature  from  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  a  subject  which  Taylor  had 
it  in  his  mind  to  write  upon,  but  which  circum 
stances  prevented  him  from  essaying. 

When  the  papers  of  "The  Echo  Club"  were 
written,  we  were  entering  in  literature  upon  an 
era  of  nervous  impatience  and  meretricious 
adornment.  The  bizarre  and  the  superlative 
were  the  objects  of  literary  quest.  Taylor,  who 
had  been  taught  by  Goethe,  as  Goethe  had 
learned  from  Oesir,  that  simplicity  is  the  ideal 
of  beauty,  admired  quiet  style  and  was  parsimo 
nious  in  epithet.  His  vexation  at  "  the  intense  " 
prompted  such  a  critical  aside  as  the  following : 
"  I  once  discovered  that  with  both  the  English 
and  German  poets  of  a  hundred  years  ago  even 
ing  is  always  called  brown  and  morning  either 
rosy  or  purple.  Just  now  the  fashion  runs  to 
jewelry ;  we  have  ruby  lips,  and  topaz  light,  and 
sapphire  seas,  and  diamond  air.  Mrs.  Brown 
ing  even  says :  — 

"  '  Her  cheek's  pale  opal  burnt  with  a  red  and  restless  spark ! ' 


248  BAYARD  TAYLOR, 

What  sort  of  a  cheek  must  that  be  ?  Then  we 
have  such  a  wealth  of  gorgeous  color  as  never 
was  seen  before,  —  no  quiet  half -tints,  but  pure 
pigments,  laid  on  with  a  palette-knife.  Really,  I 
sometimes  feel  a  distinct  sense  of  fatigue  at  the 
base  of  the  optic  nerve,  after  reading  a  magazine 
story.  The  besetting  sin  of  the  popular  —  not 
the  best  —  authors  is  the  intense." 

"  Angelo  orders  his  Dinner  "  is  the  cleverest 
of  several  clever  parodies  of  Browning.  An 
"Ode  on  a  Jar  of  Pickles  "  repeats  Keats'  "Ode 
to  a  Nightingale."  "  Nauvoo  "  is  a  parallel  of 
Longfellow ;  but  the  original  parody  upon  the 
"Psalm  of  Life,"  which  Bryant  enjoyed  and 
which  led  Whitelaw  Reid  to  suggest  the  mak 
ing  of  a  series  of  corresponding  poems  for  the 
"  Tribune,"  Taylor  declined  to  print  lest  there 
should  be  offense  in  it.  Swinburne  and  Em 
erson,  Barry  Cornwall  and  Rossetti,  Bryant 
and  Tennyson,  Mrs.  Sigourney  and  Mrs.  Brown 
ing,  Boker  and  Read,  Walt  Whitman  and  Bret 
Harte,  and  many  more  make  up  the  ill-assorted 
company  of  those  whose  literary  secrets  are  dis 
sected  in  the  light  of  day. 

Taylor  had  at  some  time  read  "  Nacoochee, 
the  Beautiful  Star,"  "  Virginalia,"  and  "  Eonchs 
of  Ruby,"  .the  crack-brained  poems  of  Dr. 
Thomas  Holley  Chivers  of  Georgia,  whose  imi 
tations  of  Poe  were  the  most  grotesque  of  liter- 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  249 

ary  nightmares  ;  and  he  retained  in  his  memory 
the  incongruous  figures  and  extraordinary  epi 
thets  of  the  poems.  He  had  convulsed  social 
companies  with  his  quotations  from  them,  and 
in  the  "  Echo  Club  "  he  made  Chivers  the  terri 
ble  example  of  a  fashion  in  literature.  Taylor's 
irresistibly  comic  manner  lent  additional  force 
to  such  a  stanza  as  the  following  from  "  Rosalie 
Lee:"- 

"  Many  mellow  Cydonian  suckets, 

Sweet  apples,  anthosmial,  divine, 
From  the  ruby-rimmed  beryl ine  buckets, 

Star  gemmed,  lily  shaped,  hyaline  ; 
Like  the  sweet  golden  goblet  found  growing 

On  the  wild  emerald  cucumber-tree, 
Rich,  brilliant,  like  chrysoprase  glowing, 

Was  my  beautiful  Rosalie  Lee !  " 

There  remains  but  one  department  of  Bayard 
Taylor's  poetic  activity  undescribed.  Three 
times  he  essayed  the  drama.  "  The  Masque  of 
the  Gods  "  has  been  noted ;  the  others  are  "  The 
Prophet,"  and  "  Prince  Deukalion." 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  at  one  time  contem 
plated  a  dramatic  poem  to  be  called  the  "  Seven 
Mormon  Wives."  He  had  about  determined  to 
abandon  the  project  when  he  communicated  it 
to  Bayard  Taylor.  It  curiously  happened  that 
at  that  time  Taylor  had  already  developed  in  his 
mind  a  similar  plot  to  that  proposed  by  Aldrich. 
In  Gotha,  in  August,  1873,  he  began  to  write 


250  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

the  play  that  had  at  intervals  presented  itself  to 
him  during  a  period  of  six  years.  At  Friedrich- 
rode,  Weimar,  and  Leipzig,  while  occupied  with 
his  Goethe  studies,  he  worked  upon  the  drama, 
and  finished  it  just  one  year  after  the  comple 
tion  of  "  Lars."  It  was  called  "  The  Prophet," 
and  was  published  in  1874. 

It  is  not  a  study  in  Mormonism,  although  its 
scene  is  laid  among  the  Latter  Day  Saints,  and 
their  history  is  the  background  to  the  poem. 
The  story  instantly  suggests  Nauvoo,  and  the 
critics  guessed  the  Prophet  to  be  Joseph  Smith. 
In  David  Starr,  the  protagonist  of  the  play, 
there  is  no  attribute  of  the  Mormon  leader. 
Starr  is  a  fine  idealist,  not  a  vulgar  sensualist. 
He  is  a  victim  of  religious  ecstasy,  misled  by 
false  enthusiasm.  When  closely  examined  he  is 
seen  to  be  indicative  of  the  spiritual  direction, 
or  the  inner  light,  of  the  people  of  Taylor's  own 
county.  The  actual  prototype  of  the  charac 
ter,  Taylor  said,  was  the  Rev.  Edward  Irving, 
although,  apart  from  his  belief  in  the  bestowal 
of  miraculous  powers  upon  devout  Christians, 
there  is  little  to  suggest  the  eloquent  Scotch 
enthusiast,  or  his  Holy  Catholic  Apostolic 
Church. 

David  Starr  emigrates  to  the  West,  and  es 
tablishes  the  community  of  Zion,  intending  to 
translate  into  practice  the  visions  and  raptures 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  251 

of  his  life  in  New  England.  Polygamy  is  intro 
duced  into  the  plot,  and  the  tragedy  of  the 
Prophet's  death  concludes  a  story  in  which 
unreasoning  Orthodoxy  is  assailed  at  least  as 
roughly  as  Mormonism. 

David  Starr's  vision  in  the  wilderness  is  the 
recollection  of  an  actual  experience  that  Taylor 
had  near  the  foothills  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  in 
1849.  The  Prophet  says :  — 

"  Came  languid  peace,  then  awe  and  shuddering 
Without  a  cause,  a  frost  in  every  vein, 
And  the  heart  hammered,  as  to  burst  mine  ears. 
Something  slid  past  me,  cold  and  serpent  like  : 
The  trees  were  filled  with  whispers ;  and  afar 
Called  voices  not  of  man  ;  and  then  my  soul 
Went  forth  from  me,  and  spread  and  grew  aloft 
Through  darting  lights,  —  His  arrows,  here  and  there 
Shot  down  on  earth.     But  now  my  knowledge  fades : 
What  followed,  keener,  mightier  than  a  dream, 
My  hope  interprets.     Only  this  I  know,  — 
The  dark  invisible  pillars  of  the  sky 
Breathed  like  deep  organ-pipes  of  awful  sound  : 
A  myriad,  myriad  tongues  the  choral  sang  ; 
And  drowned  in  it,  stunned  with  excess  of  power, 
My  soul  sank  down,  and  sleep  my  body  touched." 

The  vision  is  the  poetizing  of  a  splendid 
prose  passage  in  "  At  Home  and  Abroad " 
which  recalls  the  strange  dream-fugues  of  De 
Quincey :  — 

"  I  lay  awake  half  an  hour  at  a  time,  watch 
ing  the  culmination  of  the  stars  on  the  meridian 
line  of  a  slender  twig  over  my  head.  It  was 


252  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

perhaps  an  hour  past  midnight,  when,  as  I  thus 
lay  with  open  eyes,  gazing  into  the  eternal 
beauty  of  the  night,  I  became  conscious  of  a 
deep,  murmuring  sound,  like  that  of  a  rising 
wind.  ...  A  strange  feeling  of  awe  and  expec 
tancy  took  possession  of  me.  Not  a  dead  leaf 
stirred  on  the  boughs  ;  while  the  mighty  sound, 

—  a  solemn  choral,  sung  by  ten  thousand  voices, 

—  swept  down  from  the  hills,  and  rolled  away 
like  retreating  thunder  over  the  plain.     It  was 
no  longer   the  roar  of   the  wind.     As   in   the 
wandering  prelude   of   an  organ  melody,  note 
trod  upon  note,  with  slow  majestic   footsteps, 
until  they  gathered  to  a  theme,  and  then  came 
the  words,  simultaneously  chanted   by  an  im 
measurable  host :    4  Vivant  Terrestrice  I '     The 
air  was  filled  with  the  tremendous  sound,  which 
seemed  to  sweep  near  the  surface  of  the  earth  in 
powerful  waves,  without  echo  or  reverberation." 

It  was  Taylor's  intention  to  publish  "  The 
Prophet  "  anonymously,  and  to  prelude  it  with 
some  verses  by  the  unknown  author,  —  the 
verses  to  be  printed  in  "  The  Atlantic  Monthly  " 
or  some  other  magazine.  The  plan  was  relin 
quished  for  various  reasons,  but  the  fact  that 
such  a  design  was  entertained  is  interesting  as 
illustrating  the  feeling  that  Taylor  had  for  his 
poetry.  At  the  time  that  he  was  engaged  upon 
"  The  Prophet "  he  was  much  discouraged  by 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  253 

the  little  attention  paid  to  his  poetical  writings. 
His  experience  was  precisely  that  of  many  lit 
erary  men,  who,  after  attaining  a  certain  posi 
tion,  get  scant  praise  from  the  newspapers.  The 
good  things  of  accredited  authors  are  taken  as 
matters  of  course,  and  poems  and  stories,  any 
one  of  which  would  make  the  fortune  of  a  new 
writer,  create  no  enthusiasm  whatever.  On  the 
eve  of  his  departure  for  Cairo,  and  just  after 
leaving  Florence,  —  where,  with  Lowell  and 
Henry  James,  he  declared  he  had  made  "  quite 
a  Cambridge  atmosphere  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  old  Tuscan  city,"  —  he  wrote  to  T.  B. 
Aldrich  :  "  As  regards  4  The  Prophet '  I  think 
it  can't  make  any  serious  difference.  It  could 
not,  as  I  conceived  it,  be  anything  but  a  dra 
matic  poem.  A  story  would  be  very  apt  to  be 
tray  me,  and  this  will  not.  The  manuscript  will 
be  copied  and  forwarded  in  April,  and  you  can 
then  judge.  Meantime  (as  I  have  just  written 
to  Osgood)  I  '11  study  ways  and  means  of  mys 
tery,  provocations  of  curiosity,  etc.,  and  forward 
whatever  I  can  do  in  that  line  to  you  two,  sub 
ject  to  your  good  judgment.  I  know  you  will 
like  the  work  itself,  for  it  is  honest  and  earnest. 
When  you  suggested  to  me  the  seven  Mormon 
wives,  in  the  street,  I  had  already  my  plan 
nearly  complete,  and  it  cost  me  an  effort  not  to 
tell  you  so.  I  make  the  origin  of  the  Mormon 


254  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

sect  and  the  Joe  Smith  tragedy  the  historical 
background  of  my  poem,  but  the  plot  has  the  uni 
versal  human  element.  It  stirs  up  more  than  one 
question  which  disturbs  the  undercurrents  of  the 
world,  just  now."  (Rome,  February  24,  1874.) 

From  Gotha,  on  his  return  from  Egypt,  Tay 
lor  wrote  to  Mr.  Aldrich  :  "  I  have  at  last  per 
petrated  three  rather  brief  poems,  which  (to 
me)  read  as  if  they  might  have  been  written  by 
some  one  else.  The  more  I  reflect  upon  the 
whole  plan  of  mystification,  the  more  difficult 
it  seems  to  me.  It  is  impossible  to  put  forth 
4  The  Prophet '  as  the  work  of  a  young  poet, 
because  no  young  poet  could  have  written  it : 
the  mysterious  author  must  be  an  older  man, 
and  some  reason  must  be  given  —  or  indicated 
—  why  he  has  not  before  appeared  in  print." 
(May  21,  1874.) 

The  three  poems  were  "  A  Lover's  Test," 
"  My  Prologue,"  and  "  Gabriel,"  and  they  have 
been  published  in  the  "  Household  "  edition  of 
Taylor's  poems.  The  reason  why  the  unknown 
author  has  not  before  appeared  in  print,  to 
which  Taylor  refers  above  in  his  letter  to  Mr. 
Aldrich,  is  hinted  at  in  "  My  Prologue  :  "  — 

"  If  heat  of  youth,  't  is  heat  suppressed 

That  fills  my  breast : 
The  childhood  of  a  voiceless  lyre 
Preserves  my  fire. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  255 

I  chanted  not  while  I  was  young  ; 

But  ere  age  chill,  I  liberate  my  tongue ! 

"  Apart  from  stormy  ways  of  men, 

Maine's  loneliest  glen 
Held  me  as  banished,  and  unheard 

I  saved  my  word  : 
I  would  not  know  the  bitter  taste 
Of  the  crude  fame  which  falls  to  them  that  haste. 

"  On  each  impatient  year  I  tossed 

A  holocaust 
Of  effort,  ashes  ere  it  burned, 

And  justly  spurned. 
If  now  I  own  maturer  days, 
I  know  not :  dust  to  me  is  passing  praise. 

"  But  out  of  life  arises  song, 

Clear,  vital,  strong,  — 
The  speech  men  pray  for  when  they  pine, 

The  speech  divine 
No  other  can  interpret :  grand 
And  permanent,  for  time  and  race  and  land. 

"  I  dreamed  I  spake  it :  do  I  dream 

The  pride  supreme, 
Or,  like  late  lovers,  found  the  bride 

Their  youth  denied, 
Is  this  my  stinted  passion's  flow  ? 
It  well  may  be  ;  and  they  that  read  will  know." 

The  poems  are  so  Taylorian  in  every  respect 
that  even  had  they  been  published  as  intended, 
their  authorship  could  not  have  been  the  mys 
tery  of  an  hour. 

The  ethical  thought  of  "  The  Masque  of  the 


256  BAYAED  fAYLOE. 

Gods "  matured  and  culminated  in  "  Prince 
Deukalion,"  Bayard  Taylor's  last  play  and  last 
book.  His  religious  faith  which  had  swung  so 
wide  from  its  early  moorings  was  definitely  de 
fined  in  this  last  testament.  It  was  the  audit  of 
his  personal  account :  his  conception  of  life  and 
of  the  universe.  The  great  idea  of  immortality 
that  has  held  men  through  all  the  ages,  and  has 
been  the  centre  of  so  much  of  the  world's  grand 
est  literature,  is  the  central  fire  burning  in  this 
rhyme  of  the  progress  of  humanity. 

Early  in  life  Taylor  had  a  dream,  the  effect  of 
which  was  never  lost.  He  dreamed  that  he  had 
been  shot.  The  wound  was  mortal,  and  the  ex 
trication  of  the  soul  from  the  body  and  its  sub 
sequent  independent  life  were  so  vivid  as  to  be 
accepted  as  a  revelation.  The  strange  vision 
gave  him  an  inexpugnable  sense  of  personal  im 
mortality.  Before  going  to  Germany  for  the 
last  time,  Taylor  showed  to  the  Rev.  W.  R. 
Alger  a  drawing  of  the  dead  Goethe,  and  re 
marking  the  sweetness  of  contentment  that 
rested  upon  the  features,  said  that  it  was  the  sig 
net  of  immortality  left  by  the  departing  tenant 
upon  the  mortal  clay. 

Immortality  was  to  him  a  profound  and  un 
disturbed  conviction,  and  he  bore  witness  to  it 
when  all  about  him  materialism  was  shaking  to 
destruction  the  established  dogmas  of  the  world. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  257 

He  read  little  in  metaphysics,  but  he  meditated 
much  upon  Goethe's  "  Pandora  "  and  upon  the 
second  part  of  "  Faust."  He  was  in  the  habit 
of  introspectively  taking  and  giving  account  of 
himself.  When  he  believed  himself  to  have  ar 
rived  at  a  final  Weltanschauung,  to  use  a  Ger 
man  word  which  he  might  have  used  and  for 
which  there  is  no  exact  equivalent  in  English, 
he  attempted  to  give  it  literary  expression,  be 
lieving  with  Dr.  Hedge  that  even  metaphysics 
might  be  sung  if  first  melted  in  the  poetic  mood ; 
hence  in  "  Prince  Deukalion  "  the  grasping  at 
the  whole  of  human  history,  and  the  projec 
tion  of  the  poet's  imagination  into  the  time  to 
come.  The  symbolism  of  the  drama  has  con 
demned  it  to  be  read  by  a  very  few,  but  popu 
larity  is  no  test  of  real  merit.  The  barest  com 
monplace,  if  enveloping  a  sentiment  that  touches 
the  common  heart  of  man,  is  treasured  up  to 
a  life  beyond  life,  while  the  great  reaches  of 
thought  and  imagination  are  shared  and  trans 
mitted  by  an  elect  few  of  mankind.  Sydney 
Smith,  when  he  delivered  his  lectures  on  moral 
philosophy  at  the  Royal  Institution,  began  with : 
"  There  is  a  word  of  dire  sound  and  horrible 
import  which  I  would  fain  have  kept  concealed 
if  I  possibly  could.  It  is  that  very  tremendous 
one  of  METAPHYSICS,  which  in  a  lecture  on 
Moral  Philosophy  seems  likely  to  produce  as 


.    258  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

much  alarm  as  the  cry  of  fire  in  a  crowded  play 
house,  when  Belvidera  is  left  to  weep  by  herself 
and  every  one  saves  himself  in  the  best  manner 
he  can."  Probably  not  many  of  those  who  es 
sayed  "  Prince  Deukalion  "  held  on  to  the  close  of 
the  first  act,  and  of  those  who  read  further  there 
was  likely  but  a  handful  who  found  the  Eoman 
Catholic  Church  in  the  symbolism  of  the  Medusa, 
or  who  in  the  fourth  act  realized  the  scope  of 
Taylor's  hope  and  imagination  for  the  future 
and  the  giant  things  to  come  at  large. 

From  savagery  to  refined  civility,  from  the 
stone  age  to  the  golden  age,  the  long  and  de 
vious  journey  of  humanity  is  recorded  in  this 
lyrical  drama.  To  Buddha  preaching  the  gos 
pel  of  renunciation,  Agathon  replies,  expressing 
Taylor's  whole  philosophy  of  life :  — 

"  But  I  accept,  —  even  all  this  conscious  life 
Gives  in  its  fullest  measure,  —  gladness,  health, 
Clean  appetite,  and  wholeness  of  my  claim 
To  knowledge,  beauty,  aspiration,  power! 
Joy  follows  action,  here  ;  and  action  bliss, 
Hereafter  !     While,  God-lulled,  thy  children  sleep, 
Mine,  God-aroused,  shall  wake  to  wander  on 
Through  spheres  thy  slumbrous  essence  never  dreamed. 
Thy  highest  is  my  lowest !  " 

The  metrical  variety  of  the  work  makes  it 
one  of  the  notable  poems  of  America.  The 
structural  five  stress  verse  undulates  into  light 
and  sparkle.  The  lyrical  interludes  and  choral 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  259 

passages  shift  into  protean  shapes,  and  the 
reminiscences  of  German  and  English  literature 
lend  a  faint  perfume  even  to  lines  that  other 
wise  are  dull  or  languid. 

A  melancholy  interest  attaches  to  "Prince 
Deukalion."  The  manuscript  book  was  com 
pleted  October  7,  1877.  In  November  of  the 
following  year  it  was  published.  Only  one  copy 
of  the  work  did  Bayard  Taylor  see.  It  was 
his  "  swan-song."  Within  a  month  he  was  dead. 

In  gathering  up  all  the  strands  of  Bayard 
Taylor's  poetic  genius,  —  lyric,  epic,  ode,  idyl, 
romance,  pastoral,  and  drama,  —  and  knitting 
them  into  one  brave  pattern,  that  by  their 
united  lustre  his  work  as  a  whole  may  be  ac 
counted  for,  and  his  place  in  literature  deter 
mined,  it  is  immediately  evident  that  his  charac 
ter  adequately  and  justly  expressed  itself  in  his 
poetry.  His  buoyancy  of  spirit,  his  gentle  dis 
position,  his  stainless  morals,  and  his  loyalty  to 
the  best  in  himself  and  in  his  friends,  in  a  word 
all  the  predominating  traits  of  his  life,  are  also 
the  chief  accents  of  his  verse. 

Whittier  "  so  loved  the  man  ; "  Longfellow 
compared  him  to  his  own  ideal  Prince,  — 

"  Thou  hast  sung  with  organ  tone 
In  Deukalion's  life  thine  own  ;  " 

Powers  spoke  of  him  as  almost  an  angel ;  "  in 
soul  and  stature  larger  than  thy  kind,"  said 


260  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Lanier.  The  manly  and  magnanimous  nature 
that  stole  away  the  hearts  of  men  and  made 
them  his,  informed  his  poetry,  into  which  no 
discordant  note  of  envy  or  of  malice  enters. 
His  worst  he  kept,  his  best  he  gave. 

He  has  sensuous  passion,  but  it  is  clean  and 
pure.  He  stretches  wide  arms  to  grasp  the  joy 
of  earth,  but  he  always  holds  himself  in  a  re 
straining  grasp.  Upon  new  acquaintances  he 
made  an  impression  of  innocence.  His  conduct 
and  his  conversation  did  not  betray  the  wide 
knowledge  of  men  and  of  the  world  that  he 
really  possessed.  He  took  literature  seriously 
and  his  life  was  simple.  He  was  neither  a 
churchman,  nor  a  man  of  the  world ;  he  was 
consecrated  to  poetry,  and  he  was  a  member  of 
the  universal  church  invisible. 

He  began  his  career  singing  his  simple  delight 
in  the  kindly  earth,  with  Bryant  for  the  master 
of  his  youth.  The  elemental  feeling  that  he 
caught  from  his  master  is  illustrated  in  "  The 
Bath,"  a  poem  that  might  have  been  written 
by  Walt  Whitman,  could  he  by  some  strange 
miracle  have  been  converted  to  art.  "  Run 
Wild "  illustrates  with  equal  force  Taylor's 
feeling  for  natural  scenery. 

He  outgrew  the  "  elemental  "  and  the  lyrical, 
and  entered  upon  the  ethnical  and  secular. 
Historic  and  prophetic  visions,  the  infinite 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  261 

cavalcade  of  nations  and  races,  and  the  pro 
cession  of  the  ages,  superseded  the  "  desert's 
utmost  rim,"  and  the  "land  of  Dreams  and 
Sleep."  An  alert  perception  of  external  things 
was  in  his  verse  as  in  his  prose.  A  fine  sense  of 
form  and  color  distinguished  the  oriental  images 
and  "  The  Picture  of  St.  John."  He  was  far 
from  affectation.  "  Proportion  "  was  his  word 
for  art.  His  instinct  was  against  obscurity  and 
odd  expression,  —  an  admirable  and  enviable  in 
stinct  in  these  days  when,  as  George  Eliot  has 
said,  "  Clear  messages  are  rare,"  and  when  a 
Browning  gives  us,  as  it  were,  Anglo-Saxon 
drawings,  when  he  might  as  easily  render  his 
subject  in  correct  anatomy. 

Taylor  has  splendid  rhetoric.  His  verse  is 
strikingly  sonorous,  and  he  was  always  seeking 
what  he  called  "  resonance."  There  is  a  roll  to 
some  of  the  lines  of  his  "  Faust "  that  suggests 
a  far-sounding  march.  He  was  fond  of  broad, 
bright  vowels  and  rich  consonantal  effects,  and 
was  skillful  in  the  disposition  of  them.  His 
alliteration  was  voluminous  yet  subtle.  The 
opening  of  "  The  National  Ode  "  is  full  of  these 
qualities. 

"  Sun  of  the  stately  Day, 

Let  Asia  into  the  shadow  drift, 

Let  Europe  bask  in  thy  ripened  ray, 

And  over  the  severing  ocean  lift 


262  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

A  brow  of  broader  splendor ! 

Give  light  to  the  eager  eyes 
Of  the  Land  that  waits  to  behold  thee  rise  ; 

The  gladness  of  morning  lend  her, 

With  the  triumph  of  noon  attend  her, 
And  the  peace  of  the  vesper  skies !  " 

The  glittering  march  of  the  stanzas  of  "  The 
Lost  Crown,"  — 

"  A  throne  of  gold  the  wheels  uphold, 
Each  spoke  a  ray  of  jeweled  fire  : 
The  crimson  banners  float  unrolled 
Or  falter  when  the  winds  expire,"  — 

and  the  lofty  diction  of  "  Canopus,"  — 

"  And,  past  those  halls  which  for  itself  the  mind 

Builds,  permanent  as  marble,  and  as  cold, 
In  warm  surprises  of  the  blood  we  find 
The  sumptuous  dream  unfold !  "  — 

display  a  mastery  of  rhetoric  and  harmony  un 
surpassed  in  American  poetry. 

He  was  accompanied  by  the  melodies  of  other 
poets.  They  haunted  him,  and  so  shaped  his 
own  work  that  they  conveyed  to  the  critical  ear 
familiar  sounds  and  created  the  impression  that 
Taylor  was  only  a  copier  of  others.  Yet  he  was 
always  trying  metrical  experiments,  and  he  was 
proud  of  his  sure-footed  verse.  His  poem  "  The 
Waves "  (1850),  conceived  while  walking  on 
the  Battery  in  New  York,  was  an  attempt  to 
suggest  "  the  rapid  rolling  to  shore  of  the  waves 
under  a  fresh  breeze." 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  263 

In  "  Wind  and  Sea  "  a  striking  effect  is  pro 
duced  by  the  opposition  of  the  two  elements  in 
movement.  These  poems  and  "  Iris  "  show  how 
Taylor  was  charged  with  Shelley,  an  influence 
that  yielded  later  to  the  spirit  of  Tennyson,  who 
is  felt  in  the  delicate  fancy  of  the  improvisa 
tion  :  — 

"  A  grass-blade  is  my  warlike  lance, 

A  rose-leaf  is  ray  shield  ; 
Beams  of  the  sun  are,  every  one, 
My  chargers  for  the  field. 

"  The  morning  gives  me  golden  steeds, 

The  moon  gives  silver- white ; 
The  stars  drop  down,  my  helm  to  crown, 
When  I  go  forth  to  fight. 

"  Against  me  ride  in  iron  mail 
The  squadrons  of  the  foe  : 
The  bucklers  flash,  the  maces  crash, 
The  haughty  trumpets  blow. 

u  One  touch,  and  all,  with  armor  cleft, 

Before  me  turn  and  yield. 
Straight  on  I  ride  ;  the  world  is  wide, 
A  rose-leaf  is  my  shield ! 

"  Then  dances  o'er  the  waterfall 

The  rainbow,  in  its  glee ; 
The  daisy  sings,  the  lily  rings 
Her  bells  of  victory. 

"  So  am  I  armed  where'er  I  go, 
And  mounted  night  or  day : 
Who  shall  oppose  the  conquering  rose, 
And  who  the  sunbeam  slay  ?  " 


264  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

An  English  critic  says  that  "  the  main  draw 
back  to  the  widespread  acceptance  of  Bayard 
Taylor's  poetry  as  a  whole  is  its  perpetual  dif- 
fuseness.  His  most  ambitious  productions  are 
marred  by  a  ceaseless  effort  to  overstrain  his 
powers."  There  is  a  truth  in  this  acute  though 
curt  criticism  that  was  the  keenest  disappoint 
ment  of  Taylor's  life.  Exhausting  and  multi 
form  labors  perpetually  forbade  him  to  refine 
his  subtle  sense  of  poetry,  and  to  overtake  the 
splendid  ideal  that  he  pursued.  The  permanent 
works  of  the  human  spirit  seem  to  require  soli 
tude  and  repose  for  their  creation.  The  great 
German  declares, 

"  Es  bildet  ein  Talent  sich  in  der  Stille, 
Doch  ein  Charakter  in  dem  Strom  der  Welt." 

In  his  eager  quest  after  "  cosmical  experi 
ence,"  and  in  his  hungry  ambition  "to  dwell 
enlarged  in  alien  modes  of  thought,"  Taylor  lost 
the  opportunity  and  ability  to  overtake  the  one 
thing  that  he  really  reverenced  and  for  which  he 
lived.  "  If  I  were  to  write  about  myself  for  six 
hours,"  he  wrote  to  E.  C.  Stedman,  "  it  would 
all  come  to  this :  that  life  is,  for  me,  the  establish 
ing  of  my  own  Entelecheia,  —  the  making  of  all 
that  is  possible  out  of  such  powers  as  I  may  have, 
without  violently  forcing  or  distorting  them." 

Fierce  competition  and  a  life  of  hurry  were 
the  conditions  under  which  Taylor  labored. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  265 

He  had  a  generous  scheme  of  living,  and  he 
had  a  severely  high  ideal ;  with  splendid  health 
and  courage  he  struggled  to  win  the  one,  and  to 
realize  the  other.  The  swiftest  runner  could 
hardly  hope  to  win  in  such  a  race.  Taylor 
sank  exhausted  when  almost  at  the  goal.  When 
with  failing  breath  he  panted,  "  I  want  that 
stuff  of  life  "  -  almost  the  last  words  that 
passed  his  lips,  —  it  was  the  pathetic,  even 
tragic,  cry  of  a  strong  man  whose  work  still  lay 
before  him,  and  upon  whose  dying  brow  the 
light  of  an  ideal  that  could  never  be  attained 
still  lingered.  When  under  the  German  spell, 
and  when  his  spiritual  nature  was  spongy  to  the 
imagination  and  melody  of  Goethe  and  Schiller, 
his  verse  led  on  into  richer  and  more  various 
measures  that  indicated  what  might  have  been, 
had  the  tyranny  of  his  surroundings  been  more 
merciful,  and  had  time  been  vouchsafed  him  for 
the  successful  and  solitary  pursuit  of  his  serene 
ideal. 

His  emancipation  from  the  "  cabin'd,  cribb'd, 
confined  "  life  in  Pennsylvania,  and  later  from 
the  retarding  influences  of  an  insufficient  society 
in  New  York,  was  slow  and  uncertain.  The 
men  of  New  England  were  content  with  plain 
homes  and  simple  living,  and  were  satisfied  with 
the  small  incomes  of  professional  life.  Taylor 
had  other  aims.  He  was  ambitious  for  himself 


266  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

and  thoughtful  for  his  friends.  Involved  in  the 
expenses  of  Cedarcroft  he  never  knew  the  enor 
mous  value  of  freedom.  He  was  always  draw 
ing  on  the  strength  of  to-morrow  to  do  the  work 
of  to-day ;  as  machinists  say,  he  was  running  on 
his  gudgeons.  Where  so  much  was  done,  and 
work  was  so  profuse  and  so  constant,  it  is  still  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  the  average  was  so  fine. 
Uhland  says :  — 

"  Fehlt  das  aussre  f  rie  Wesen 
Leicht  erkrankt  auch  das  Gedicht."  l 

And  unconsciously  Taylor  was,  in  himself,  a 
fresh  illustration  of  the  truth  of  the  saying. 
His  failure  was  more  admirable  than  many  suc 
cesses.  "  Not  failure  but  low  aim  is  crime," 
says  Robert  Browning,  who  preaches  the  gospel 
of  lofty  endeavor  in  "  Eabbi  Ben  Ezra,"  "  The 
Grammarian's  Funeral,"  and  a  score  of  other 
poems.  Taylor's  ambition  could  scarcely  have 
been  fully  realized  even  in  a  long  life  strictly 
dedicated,  as  Prospero  on  the  enchanted  island 
says,  "  to  closeness,  and  the  bettering  of  his  mind 
with  that  which  but  by  being  so  retired,  o'er- 
prized  all  popular  rate."  Amid  his  many  dis 
tractions,  and  under  his  weary  load,  it  was  im 
possible. 

The  discontent  and  the  longing  are  in  "  Im- 
plora  Pace :  "  — 

1  Varw&rt,  1st  edition,  1815. 


POEMS  AND  PLATS.  267 

"  And  still  some  cheaper  service  claims 

The  will  that  leaps  to  loftier  call : 
Some  cloud  is  cast  on  splendid  aims, 

On  power  achieved  some  common  thrall. 

"  To  spoil  each  beckoning  victory, 

A  thousand  pygmy  hands  are  thrust ; 
And,  round  each  height  attained,  we  see 
Our  ether  dim  with  lower  dust. 

"  Ah,  could  we  breathe  some  peaceful  air, 

And  all  save  purpose  there  forget, 
Till  eager  courage  learn  to  bear 

The  gadfly's  sting,  the  pebble's  fret ! 

"  Let  higher  goal  and  harsher  way, 

To  test  our  virtue,  then  combine  I 
'T  is  not  for  idle  ease  we  pray, 
But  freedom  for  our  task  divine." 

No  one  ever  felt  more  intensely  than  Bayard 
Taylor  "  the  torment  and  the  ecstasy  "  of  verse. 
His  friend,  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  says : 
"  Taylor's  nature  was  so  ardent,  so  full-blooded, 
that  slight  and  common  sensations  intoxicated 
him,  and  he  estimated  their  effect,  and  his  power 
to  transmit  it  to  others,  beyond  the  true  value." 
The  poetic  temperament  sees  the  beauty  of  the 
world  as  the  unanointed  eye  cannot.  The  radi 
ance  in  flood  and  field,  the  transfiguring  light 
upon  the  landscape  Taylor  thought  he  had  com 
pletely  captured,  in  words  which  to  him  were  a 
wilderness  of  blooms  and  scents,  but  which  were 
commonplace  to  other  eyes. 


268  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

There  are  several  poems  in  which  he  celebrates 
his  own  genius,  and  the  glory  of  his  poetic  effort 
and  achievement.  It  is  not  egotism  that  prompts 
such  creations  as  "  Porphyrogenitus,"  and  "  The 
Lost  Crown."  In  them  he  speaks  for  men  of 
his  type,  and  through  them  to  universal  humanity. 
In  all  his  literary  work  he  availed  himself  of  his 
experience  and  of  his  moods.  His  soul  in  the 
poetic  celebrations  of  himself  takes  reflex  posses 
sion  of  its  own  glory. 

Taylor's  chief  defect  seems  to  me  to  be  a  lack 
of  spontaneity.  His  poetry  is  all  intended.  It 
is  carefully  built  up  by  the  intellect.  The  reader 
searches  in  vain  for  an  escape  from  the  intellec 
tual  ;  Taylor  never  gives  the  rein  to  the  spirit. 
The  reader  is  surprised  by  no  sudden  glories  of 
imagination,  for  Taylor  never  seems  to  look  forth 
from  those  "  magic  casements,  opening  on  the 
foam  of  perilous  seas  in  faery  lands  forlorn  !  " 

In  the  "  Bedouin  Song,"  in  "  The  Song  of  the 
Camp,"  with  its  athletic  stanzas,  — 

"  They  lay  along-  the  battery's  side, 

Below  the  smoking  cannon : 
Brave  hearts  from  Severn  and  from  Clyde, 
And  from  the  banks  of  Shannon,"  — 

and  in  the  exquisite  melody  and  tender  pathos 
of  "  Euphorion,"  Bayard  Taylor  rises  very  near 
the  heaven  of  highest  song.  Of  the  longer,  sus 
tained  poems,  "  Lars  "  only  seems  to  contain  the 
principle  of  life. 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  269 

A  Taylor  cult  exists  in  America.  Among  the 
younger  poets  his  verse  is  carefully  studied. 
Clubs  exist  in  schools  and  colleges,  at  least  in 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  for  the  reading 
of  his  works.  Charles  Henry  Liiders  in  "  The 
Dead  Nymph,"  and  Frank  Dempster  Sherman 
in  a  "  Greeting  for  Spring," l  have  essayed  the 
style  of  "  Peach-Blossom,"  and  in  many  another 
poem  have  followed  the  music  of  Taylor.  Clin 
ton  Scollard,  who  has  been  an  enthusiastic  col 
lector  and  interpreter  of  Taylor's  poetry,  has 
been  inspired  by  its  lyrical  spirit  to  the  making 
of  some  of  his  strongest  and  most  vital  verse. 

Three  months  before  his  death,  Bayard  Tay 
lor  wrote  his  last  poem,  "  Epicedium.  William 
Cullen  Bryant."  He  was  desperately  ill  and 
exhausted,  and  he  knew  that  the  verses  were 
sluggish  and  forced.  The  closing  lines,  the  last 
that  Taylor  ever  penned,  are  as  true  of  their 
author  as  of  Bryant. 

"  His  last  word,  as  his  first,  was  Liberty ! 
His  last  word,  as  his  first,  for  Truth 
Struck  to  the  heart  of  age  and  youth : 

He  sought  her  everywhere, 
In  the  loud  city,  forest,  sea,  and  air : 
He  bowed  to  wisdom  other  than  his  own, 

To  wisdom  and  to  law, 

Concealed  or  dimly  shown 
In  all  he  knew  not,  all  he  knew  and  saw, 
Trusting  the  Present,  tolerant  of  the  Past, 
1  Published  in  Lyrics  for  a  Lute. 


270  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

Firm-faithed  in  what  shall  come 
When  the  vain  noises  of  these  days  are  dumb ; 
And  his  first  word  was  noble  as  his  last !  " 

On  the  road  from  Gotha  to  Friedrichroda  is  a 
stork's  nest  upon  the  gable  of  a  peasant's  house 
in  the  little  village  of  Wahlwinkel.  After  one 
of  the  drives  from  Gotha,  Bayard  Taylor  wrote 
"  The  Village  Stork,"  a  poem  which  is  the  im 
mediate  precursor  of  "  Epicedium."  Reading 
between  the  lines  it  is  not  difficult  to  catch  an 
undertone  of  sadness  and  personal  meaning.  It 
contains  his  wanderings,  his  long  struggle  for 
recognition  and  opportunity,  and  his  still  uncer 
tain  place  in  poetry. 

The  Stork  is  made  to  say :  — 

"  Beneath  a  sky  forever  fair, 

And  with  a  summer  sod, 
The  land  I  come  from  smiles  —  and  there 

My  brother  was  a  god ! 
My  nest  upon  a  temple  stands 

And  sees  the  shine  of  desert  lands  ; 
And  the  palm  and  the  tamarisk  cool  my  wings, 
When  the  blazing  beam  of  the  noonday  stings, 

And  I  drink  from  the  holy  river  ! 

"  There  I  am  sacred,  even  as  here ; 

Yet  dare  I  not  be  lost, 
When  meads  are  bright,  hearts  full  of  cheer, 

At  blithesome  Pentecost. 
Then  from  mine  obelisk  I  depart, 

And  sweep  in  a  line  over  Libyan  sands 

To  the  blossoming  olives  of  Grecian  lands, 
And  rest  on  the  Cretan  Ida ! 


POEMS  AND  PLAYS.  271 

"  Parnassus  sees  me  as  I  sail ; 

I  cross  the  Adrian  brine  ; 
The  distant  summits  fade  and  fail, 

Dalmatian,  Apennine ; 
The  Alpine  snows  beneath  me  gleam, 
I  see  the  yellow  Danube  stream ; 

But  I  hasten  on  till  my  spent  wings  fall 

Where  I  bring  a  blessing  to  each  and  all, 
And  babes  to  the  wives  of  Wahlwinkel  1 

"  She  drooped  her  head  and  spake  no  more  ; 

The  birds  on  either  hand 
Sang  louder,  lustier  than  before,  — 

They  could  not  understand. 
Thus  mused  the  stork,  with  snap  of  beak : 
4  Better  be  silent,  than  so  speak ! 

Highest  being  can  never  be  taught ! 

They  have  their  voices,  I  my  thought  j 
And  they  were  never  in  Egypt ! ' ' 

When  the  extraordinary  range  of  his  interests 
and  efforts  is  considered,  and  his  variety  and 
cosmopolitanism  weighed,  it  appears  that  other 
poets  of  America  have  surpassed  him  in  parts 
but  that  no  one  has  equaled  him  in  all.  Long 
fellow  has  culture  and  goodness,  Taylor  has 
also  passion ;  Whittier  is  ethical,  Taylor  is  also 
philosophical.  Emerson  has  more  of  mystic 
originality,  greater  elan  of  inspiration,  and  ex 
cels  in  transcendental  audacity  ;  Longfellow 
preserves  a  more  equal  flight  and  has  greater 
average  fittedness  to  popular  appreciation  ;  Low 
ell  surpasses  him  in  scholastic  refinement,  and 
wit,  and  satire,  and  in  height  of  imagination. 


272  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Bayard  Taylor's  themes  are  noble ;  his  material 
deep,  rich,  and  weighty ;  his  diction  flexible, 
precise,  concise,  and  musical ;  and  his  poetic 
form  filed  and  finished  in  the  spirit  of  artistic 
unity. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH. 

1874-1878. 

JAMES  RUSSELL  LOWELL  says  of  Masson's 
vast  life  of  John  Milton  that  Milton  occasionally 
enters  the  biography,  and,  like  Paul  Pry,  hopes 
he  does  not  intrude.  The  merry  comparison 
would  not  hold  in  Bayard  Taylor's  relations  to 
American  literature.  Consider  the  work  he 
did  in  the  fifty-four  years  of  his  life  :  his  far 
travels,  his  wide  experience  in  all  departments 
of  journalism,  his  services  as  a  diplomatist  in 
Russia  and  in  Germany,  the  variety  of  his  lit 
erature,  —  essays,  descriptive  and  critical,  his 
tory  and  biography,  novels  and  short  stories, 
translations,  odes,  idyls,  ballads,  lyrics,  pas 
torals,  dramatic  romances,  and  lyrical  dramas,  — 
and  it  is  clear  that  his  career  comprehends  the 
orbit  of  contemporary  American  life  and  letters. 
He  was  not  our  highest  and  most  influential 
writer  ;  he  was  rather  a  meister  -  singer,  —  a 
guild-singer,  —  a  man  of  talent,  and  master  of 
the  mechanics  of  his  craft.  But  on  all  sides  he 


274       ,  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

touched  the  life  of  his  time.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  widely  known  American  authors.  Art  had 
graven  him  in  romantic  garb  upon  the  public 
mind.  Astonishing  memory  and  prodigious  in 
dustry  in  him  had  taken  the  place  of  genius,  and 
they  had  won  a  signal  triumph. 

After  his  return  to  America  in  September, 
1874,  work  crowded  upon  him.  He  had  become 
a  noted  man  ;  the  public  exacted  services  from 
him  ;  his  correspondence  became  enormous  and 
he  neglected  none  of  it,  writing  scores  of  letters 
in  a  day.  He  found  a  great  demand  for  his 
lectures,  and  he  accepted  all  engagements  in 
order  to  rid  himself  of  debt  and  to  obtain  free 
dom  to  pursue  the  biography  of  Goethe  and 
Schiller.  In  the  first  six  months  after  landing 
he  lectured  one  hundred  and  thirty  times,  and 
traveled  fifteen  thousand  miles.  Eleven  thou 
sand  dollars  he  cleared  by  this  labor,  and  so 
made  himself  easy  for  a  year  to  come.  At  the 
same  time  he  repeated  his  lectures  at  Cornell 
University,  described  the  Bunker  Hill  Centen 
nial  for  the  "  Tribune,"  and  revised  his  trans 
lation  of  "Faust"  for  the  "Kennett  edition," 
which  was  published  in  the  autumn  of  1875. 
The  summer  he  spent  at  Mattapoisett  upon  Buz- 
zard's  Bay,  sketching,  and  writing  "Along 
shore"  letters  to  the  "Tribune."  "Ion  of 
Iceland"  appeared  in  "St.  Nicholas,"  and  many 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  275 

book  reviews  were  furnished  to  the  "  Tribune  " 
and  the  "  International  Review."  When  the 
year  closed  he  was  living  in  comfortable  quar 
ters  in  New  York,  in  the  Stuyvesant  Building, 
142  East  Eighteenth  Street.  He  was  unutter 
ably  weary  of  being  bumped  about  the  country 
in  railway  trains,  sleeping  in  shabby  hotels,  and 
racking  his  voice  in  draughty  halls,  where  the 
wild  winds  flew  round  sobbing  in  their  dismay. 
Any  employment  seemed  preferable  to  a  con 
tinuance  of  lecturing.  He  resolved  to  go  back 
to  his  newspaper  desk,  and  bend  his  head  be 
neath  the  midnight  gas.  He  agreed  to  edit 
"  Picturesque  Europe  "  for  the  Appletons,  and 
entered  upon  daily  work  in  the  "  Tribune " 
office.  He  did  not  spare  himself.  For  twenty 
years  he  had  been  free  from  the  newspaper 
routine  ;  now  he  trod  it  patiently  and  conscien 
tiously,  though  at  his  age  and  with  his  reputa 
tion  he  should  have  been  rid  of  it  entirely. 

During  1876  he  carried  forward  this  new 
burden  of  affairs.  George  Ripley  was  head  of 
the  literary  department  of  the  "  Tribune,"  and 
under  him  Taylor  prepared  book  reviews,  and 
wrote  such  leading  articles  as  "  In  re  Walt 
Whitman,"  "  Authorship  in  America,"  "  George 
Sand,"  and  "Antonelli."  The  leaders  upon 
European  politics  in  the  majority  of  cases  were 
written  by  him,  and  a  large  amount  of  miscella- 


276  BAYAED   TAYLOR. 

neous  work  was  also  done.  To  show  how  cruelly 
he  overworked  himself  I  have  counted  his  contri 
butions  to  the  "  Tribune  "  and  find  that  in  1876 
he  gave  that  paper  two  hundred  and  thirteen 
articles  of  every  description,  —  letters,  reviews, 
and  editorials.  In  1877  he  printed  one  hundred 
and  eighty-five  articles,  and  in  the  first  seven 
weeks  of  1878  thirty-three  more  appeared. 

He  occasionally  lectured,  and  he  delivered 
his  Cornell  lectures  before  the  Peabody  Institute 
in  Baltimore.  The  "  Centennial  Ode "  was 
written  and  read,  and  his  last  prose  work  was 
published.  It  was  a  children's  classic :  "  Boys 
of  Other  Countries,  Stories  for  American  Boys." 

He  began,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Whitelaw 
Reid,  a  series  of  papers  upon  "  Life  and  Habits 
Abroad,"  which,  when  completed  in  the  "  Weekly 
Tribune,"  would  have  made  another  volume. 
But  two  of  these  articles  appeared :  "  Ways 
of  Living  in  Italy"  ("Tribune,"  January  12, 
1878),  which  shows  Taylor's  minute  observation 
and  prodigious  memory,  —  he  even  notes  the 
fact  that  in  Italy  "  a  small  farmer,"  or  one  who 
farms  seven  or  eight  acres,  will  use,  with  his 
family,  two  barrels  of  oil,  and  eight  barrels  of 
wine  in  a  year,  —  and  "  Common  Life  in  Spain  " 
(".Tribune,"  February  13,  1878). 

His  hands  were  full  of  tasks.  He  was  cut  to 
the  heart  that  his  poetry,  and  the  "  Life  of 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  277 

Goethe  "  —  his  darling  project  —  had  to  be  post 
poned.  Hurried  and  fagged  as  he  was,  his  health 
began  to  fail.  He  lost  the  alacrity  of  mind  and 
cheer  of  manner  that  had  characterized  him. 
He  no  longer  took  delight  in  social  recreation, 
but  became  grave  and  abstracted.  As  his  vitality 
waned,  his  absent-mindedness  increased.  Un 
like  his  old  intense  self,  he  seemed  not  to  hear 
things  that  were  said  to  him,  although  he  an 
swered  mechanically. 

He  writes  to  Sidney  Lanier  (March  12, 1877)  : 
"Drudgery,  drudgery,  drudgery!  What  else 
can  I  say?  Does  not  that  explain  all?  Two 
courses  of  twelve  lectures  on  German  Litera 
ture,  here  and  in  Brooklyn,  daily  work  on  the 
'Tribune,'  magazine  articles  (one  dismally  de 
layed),  interruptions  of  all  sorts,  and  just  as 
much  conscience  as  you  may  imagine  pressing 
upon  me  to  write  to  you  and  other  friends  ! 
The  fact  is  I  am  so  weary,  fagged,  with  sore 
spots  under  the  collar-bone,  and  all  sorts  of 
indescribable  symptoms  which  betoken  lessened 
vitality,  that  I  must  piteously  beg  you  to  grant 
me  much  allowance." 

Again  he  writes  to  Lanier  :  "  I  am  ground  to 
the  dust  with  work  and  worry.  I  live  from  day 
to  day,  on  the  verge  of  physical  prostration. 
Nothing  saves  me  but  eight  to  ten  hours  of  death 
like  sleep,  every  night.  Of  course  everything 


278  BAYARD   TAYLOE. 

must  wait,  —  my  Life  of  Goethe,  my  lyrical 
drama,  everything  that  is  solely  and  dearly 
mine." 

In  1877  a  few  additional  lecture  tours  were 
undertaken,  and  he  exposed  himself  to  hardship 
and  fatigue.  The  work  of  art  criticism  was 
added  to  his  other  "  Tribune "  duties ;  he  re 
peated  his  lectures  at  Cornell  University,  and 
spent  some  restful  days  with  Professor  Willard 
Fiske.  In  June,  he  wrote  "  Soldiers  of  Peace," 
a  poem  for  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Potomac,  a 
task  which  in  the  previous  year  he  had  trans 
ferred  to  William  Winter.  The  month  of  July 
he  spent  at  White  Sulphur  Springs  in  the  hope 
of  recovering  from  the  dropsical  symptoms  that 
were  appearing.  The  remainder  of  the  summer 
at  Newport  and  Mattapoisett  so  far  "  wound  up 
the  slackened  strings  of  his  lute  "  that,  with  the 
return  of  the  poetic  faculty,  he  resumed  work 
upon  "  Prince  Deukalion,"  and  completed  it  on 
the  third  of  October,  when  he  immediately  took 
up  Schiller's  "  Don  Carlos  "  with  the  intention 
of  translating  and  adapting  it  for  Lawrence 
Barrett.  His  letters  to  the  "  Cincinnati  Com 
mercial  "  were  continued,  frequent  articles  were 
contributed  to  the  magazines,  and  his  Cornell 
lectures  were  re-delivered  at  the  Lowell  Institute. 

It  was  rumored  in  1877  that  Bayard  Taylor 
was  to  be  appointed  to  a  foreign  mission.  The 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  279 

hope  of  completing  the  double  biography  of 
Goethe  and  Schiller  made  Taylor  wish  that  he 
might  be  fortunate  enough  to  secure  the  German 
ministry.  He  was  too  poor  to  accept  an  ap 
pointment  to  any  other  foreign  court.  Berlin 
he  knew  well  enough  to  know  that  he  could  live 
there  upon  his  salary;  and  then  the  splendid 
opportunity  for  literary  and  scholastic  work ! 
Private  collections  and  public  archives  that 
would  otherwise  be  inaccessible  would  open  to 
him  as  ambassador. 

After  his  return  to  Kennett  Square  from  the 
Springs  in  Virginia,  he  wrote  (August  7,  1877) 
to  Professor  J.  Morgan  Hart :  "  My  biography 
of  Goethe  is  my  sole  absorbing  interest,  and  that 
alone  impels  me,  now,  to  await  the  pleasure  of 
the  government,  which  may  either  give  or  take 
away  my  chance  of  completing  the  great  design 
within  the  next  two  or  three  years.  ...  I  cling 
to  my  plan  with  such  tenacity  that  I  surely  must 
be  allowed  to  accomplish  it  before  I  die." 

The  government  moved  slowly  in  its  appoint 
ments.  Taylor  made  no  personal  application, 
and  in  conversation  with  the  President  made 
no  reference  to  the  rumors  flying  through  the 
press.  At  last,  on  the  fifteenth  of  February, 
1878,  President  Hayes  sent  Bayard  Taylor's 
name  to  the  Senate  as  Minister  to  Germany. 
Among  the  many  admirable  appointments  made 


280  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

by  the  President  none  was  more  creditable  to 
him  or  more  acceptable  to  the  country.  Taylor 
made  no  effort  to  conceal  his  supreme  delight. 
At  last  his  time  had  come.  With  some  leisure, 
with  much  prestige,  the  way  was  open  for  him 
to  the  realization  of  his  cherished  hopes.  From 
all  sections  of  the  country  poured  in  congratu 
lations  and  good  wishes.  "  I  felt  as  if  buried 
under  a  huge  warm  wave  of  congratulation,"  he 
wrote  to  Lanier. 

A  letter  to  William  D.  Howells  expresses  his 
delight,  and  his  hope  for  the  future. 

142  EAST  18ra  ST.,  NEW  YORK,  February  20,  1878. 

MY  DEAR  HOWELLS,  —  My  wife  joins  her 
thanks  to  mine  for  your  kind  congratulation, 
which  came  just  between  Whittier's  "  God  bless 
thee  !  "  and  a  lusty  shout  from  Whipple.  You 
may  guess  from  what  I  said  under  your  roof, 
that  the  appointment  was  a  great  surprise  ;  but 
a  greater  surprise  and  a  better  honor  came  to 
me  in  the  universal  generosity  of  the  response 
to  it.  Of  course  I  am  glad,  —  for  now  nothing 
stands  between  me  and  the  life  of  Goethe. 
Ever  faithfully  yours, 

BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Until  April   11,  when  he  sailed,  Taylor  was 
the  pet  of  the  people ;  receptions  and  dinners 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  281 

filled  the  period.  He  was  amazed  and  over 
whelmed.  The  Union  League  of  Philadelphia, 
the  Goethe  Club  of  New  York,  the  German 
Minister  in  Washington,  the  Deutsche  Gesellig- 
Wissenschaftliche  Verein  of  New  York  enter 
tained  him.  The  two  demonstrations  that  were 
most  precious  to  him  were  in  West  Chester  and 
at  the  Century  Club.  The  banquet  at  the  for 
mer  place  is  still  a  famous  memory  in  Chester 
County.  At  the  latter  the  most  eminent  men 
of  the  country  pressed  upon  him  with  sponta 
neous  recognition  and  congratulation.  George 
William  Curtis  in  an  Easy-Chair  paper  writes 
of  the  latter  demonstration :  "  The  good-fellow 
ship  of  the  Century  is  famous  and  traditional, 
and  the  breakfast  to  Mr.  Taylor  assembled  some 
sixty  Centurions,  with  Mr.  Bryant  at  their 
head,  to  congratulate  Brother  Bayard  on  the 
honors  which  had  naturally  fallen  upon  an  asso 
ciate.  There  were,  besides  Mr.  Bryant,  three  or 
four  of  the  original  members,  the  patriarchs,  the 
fathers,  the  founders  of  the  Century,  who  had 
been  members  of  the  old  Sketch  Club,  from 
which  it  grew,  and  whose  presence  gives  the 
Century  the  true  royal  flavor,  like  the  lump 
of  ambergris  in  the  Sultan's  cup." 

Champagne,  and  flowers,  and  smiles,  and 
blessings  followed  him  to  the  pier  at  Jersey 
City.  A  tug  bearing  the  German  flag  accom- 


BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

panied  the  Holsatia  down  the  bay.  When  the 
last  bottle  had  been  opened,  and  the  last  fare 
wells  had  been  spoken,  and  the  vessel  stood  forth 
to  sea,  Bayard  Taylor,  exhausted  and  overcome, 
sought  his  stateroom. 

Mr.  William  D.  Howells,  in  his  account  of 
his  first  visit  to  New  England,  has  described 
"  the  tremendous  adieux  "  which  were  paid  Bay 
ard  Taylor  in  New  York :  "  Some  of  us  who 
were  near  of  friendship  went  down  to  see  him 
off  when  he  sailed,  as  the  dismal  and  futile 
wont  of  friends  is  ;  and  I  recall  the  kind,  great 
fellow  standing  in  the  cabin,  amid  those  funereal 
flowers  that  heaped  the  tables,  saying  good-by 
to  one  after  another,  and  smiling  fondly,  smil 
ing  wearily,  upon  all.  There  was  champagne, 
of  course,  and  an  odious  hilarity  without  mean 
ing  and  without  remission,  till  the  warning  bell 
chased  us  ashore,  and  our  brave  poet  escaped 
with  what  was  left  of  his  life."  ("  Harper's 
Magazine,"  May,  1894.) 

Three  days  of  opiates  quieted  the  dangerous 
excitement  that  had  brought  on  insomnia  and 
had  threatened  brain  fever ;  then  the  ocean  seda 
tive  calmed  the  fierce  blood.  In  England  he  met 
Max  Miiller  and  Thomas  Carlyle.  He  went  to 
Paris  to  be  present  at  the  opening  of  the  Exposi 
tion.  There  he  had  "a  queer  midnight  supper" 
with  Victor  Hugo,  and  attended  MacMahon's 
grand  reception  at  his  palace. 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  283 

His  reception  in  Germany  was  sincerely  cor 
dial.  The  Crown  Prince  waived  the  customary 
formalities  of  presentation,  saying  that  Bay 
ard  Taylor  needed  no  introduction  in  Germany. 
With  Bismarck  he  had  two  interesting  inter 
views.  In  one  day  he  saw  and  conversed  with 
Bismarck,  Gortchakoff,  Beaconsfield,  Andrassy, 
Waddington,  Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  Curtius, 
Mommsen,  Lepsius,  and  Helmholtz.  The  busi 
ness  of  the  embassy  called  for  close  attention 
and  nice  management.  The  cases  of  naturalized 
German  citizens  who  had  returned  to  Germany 
and  fallen  into  difficulties  caused  him  consider 
able  trouble.  He  wrote  to  the  Department  of 
State,  "  The  experience  of  the  legation  includes 
so  many  instances  of  ignorant  and  overweening 
assumption  of  rights,  that  a  certain  amount  of 
indiscretion,  to  use  no  stronger  term,  may  be 
reasonably  inferred  in  at  least  half  the  cases 
where  an  appeal  is  made  for  official  interven 
tion."  (August  7,  1878.)  Because  he  did  not 
immediately  espouse  the  cause  of  German-Amer 
icans  in  all  their  unreasonable  quarrels  and 
pretensions  he  was  abused  in  newspapers  and 
anarchistic  addresses.  One  German- American, 
who  had  been  living  for  several  years  at  Lii- 
beck,  demanded  to  be  exempted  from  the  sani 
tary  law  requiring  the  vaccination  of  his  child, 
another  requested  the  legation  to  divorce  him 


284  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

from  his  wife,  and  still  another  who  had  ac 
quired  American  citizenship  in  order  to  avoid 
military  duty,  and  who  never  intended  to  re 
turn  to  the  United  States,  forwarded  a  gross 
attack  upon  the  legation,  which  he  had  him 
self  written,  the  day  before  he  called  for  assist 
ance. 

The  Princess  Marie  of  Weimar  once  said  to 
Bayard  Taylor :  "  I  have  just  read  De  Tocque- 
ville's  '  Democracy  in  America  ; '  is  it  a  correct 
account  of  your  institutions  ?  "  Being  assured 
that  it  was,  she  said,  "  But  I  am  told  by  Ameri 
cans  that  it  is  quite  false,  that  everything  has 
in  reality  changed  and  degenerated."  "  Were 
they  native-born  Americans  or  German-Ameri 
cans  that  told  you  this?"  asked  Taylor,  and 
learned  in  reply,  as  he  suspected,  that  they 
belonged  to  the  latter  class.  "  This  class  of 
German  -  Americans,"  Taylor  frequently  said, 
"  has  done  us  positive  harm  in  Europe,  where 
their  expressions  are  welcome  in  reactionary 
circles." 

Mr.  H.  Sidney  Everett,  the  first  secretary  of 
the  German  legation,  has  very  kindly  written  for 
me  his  recollections  of  Bayard  Taylor  as  minis 
ter,  and  his  report  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired 
as  a  revelation  of  the  admirable  traits  of  char 
acter  that  showed  bravely  in  the  last  desperate 
struggle  for  life. 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  285 

*'  When  the  news  of  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Taylor  as  Minister  to  Berlin  reached  me  through 
the  newspapers,  which  is  the  courteous  way  the 
Department  of  State  adopts  to  inform  its  diplo 
matic  and  consular  officers  of  any  change,  I  had 
been  ill  charge  of  the  legation  there  for  some 
months,  and  in  a  constant  state  of  anxiety  as  to 
what  kind  of  a  chief  I  was  destined  to  have. 
Several  names  of  possible  plenipotentiaries,  each 
less  reassuring  than  the  last,  had  reached  me, 
and  the  question  had  assumed  an  importance 
which  no  one  who  has  not,  like  myself,  had  five 
different  ministers  to  work  under  can  appreciate. 
But  when  the  time  of  meeting  at  the  train  ar 
rived,  and  my  fate  stood  before  me,  all  doubts 
and  fears  vanished,  and  I  knew  by  a  glance  at 
that  genial  face,  and  after  that  cordial  greeting, 
that  Mr.  Taylor  and  I  would  pull  together  and 
be  warm  friends,  nor  had  I  any  occasion  for  a 
moment  to  modify  that  impression. 

"  I  had  previously  known  Mr.  Taylor  only  as 
the  author  of  4  Views  Afoot,'  which  had  stag 
gered  me  with  its  secrets  of  traveling  on  twenty- 
five  cents  a  day  to  more  purpose  than  I  had 
been  able  to  do  on  the  same  sum  per  hour. 
Per  contra,  I  may  state  that  this  same  '  Views 
Afoot '  was  the  innocent  cause  of  my  spending 
various  sums  on  indigent  would-be  travelers, 
whose  imagination  had  been  fired  by  reading 


286     .  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

those  charming  pages,  and  who,  in  endeavoring 
to  repeat  the  experiment,  had  forgotten  that 
they  had  not  Mr.  Taylor's  brains. 

"  When  Mr.  Taylor  reached  Berlin,  the  warm 
weather  was  approaching  and  the  diplomats 
were  scattering  to  mountain  and  seaside  resorts. 
My  own  family  left  for  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and, 
as  the  legation  offices,  after  the  foreign  custom, 
were  then  in  my  own  residence,  I  moved  into 
bachelor  quarters,  and  gave  up  my  apartment 
to  Mr.  Taylor  and  his  family.  Soon  afterwards 
the  ladies  of  his  family  went  to  the  Thuringian 
Forest  for  the  summer,  where  Mr.  Taylor  fol 
lowed  them  when  the  legation  duties  permitted. 
Mr.  Taylor's  health,  from  the  moment  of  his 
arrival,  seemed  to  me  far  from  what  it  ought 
to  be  for  a  man  of  his.  large  and  robust  build  ; 
but  I  hoped  that  the  benefit  of  a  sea  voyage, 
with  the  change  of  climate  and  food  in  a  country 
so  familiar  and  congenial  to  him  as  Germany, 
would  soon  be  apparent,  especially  as  his  physi 
cian  apparently  treated  his  troubles  lightly  and 
encouragingly.  But  such  was  not  to  be  the  case, 
and  it  was  painful  to  watch  the  steady  change 
in  his  condition  for  the  worse,  culminating  in 
his  decease  within  the  year.  How  far  he  him 
self  realized  his  condition,  I  was  never  able  to 
ascertain,  as  he,  to  the  last,  replied  to  all  in 
quiries  that  he  should  soon  be  quite  well,  and 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  287 

appeared  to  rely  confidently  on  his  splendid  con 
stitution  and  family  longevity. 

"  In  his  official  relations  with  his  subordinates 
Mr.  Taylor  was  as  charming  as  in  his  private 
intercourse.  While  excelling  in  his  own  share 
of  the  work,  and  astonishing  one  with  the  ability 
and  correctness  with  which  he  would  grasp  the 
true  aspect  of  a  question,  and  the  fluency  with 
which  he  would  put  it  into  good,  clear  English 
in  his  own  model  handwriting,  without  a  rough 
draft,  pause,  alteration,  or  erasure,  he  never 
omitted  an  opportunity  of  allowing  his  secretaries 
to  do  themselves  credit,  and  to  assist  him.  He 
was  never  unreasonable  or  exacting.  His  thor 
ough  knowledge  of  the  language,  literature,  and 
history  of  Germany  enabled  him  to  meet  its  rulers 
and  people  in  a  spirit  that,  while  it  conciliated 
them,  obtained  for  our  government  better  results 
than  the  aggressive  spread-eagleism  so  often  mis 
taken  for  diplomacy  by  our  representatives.  It 
was  no  wonder  that  every  German  heart  was 
prepared  to  welcome  the  best  translator  of 
Goethe's  '  Faust,'  and  the  diplomatic  corps  cor 
dially  responded  to  a  colleague  who  could  address 
each  of  them  in  his  own  language,  even  to  the 
representative  of  the  Celestial  Empire,  who  was 
then  the  latest  addition  to  the  diplomatic  circle. 

"  Mr.  Taylor's  constant  cheerfulness  and  deep 
sense  of  humor  lightened  the  most  arduous  work, 


288  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

and  after  office  hours  a  delightful  drive  by  his 
side  in  his  comfortable  landau,  listening  to  a 
steady  flow  of  anecdote,  poetical  recitation,  and 
traveler's  experiences,  was  a  perfect  rest  and 
treat  for  any  one.  It  had  been  the  rule  in  the 
legation,  handed  down  from  the  incumbency  of 
Mr.  Davis,  the  bitterest  foe  to  tobacco  in  all 
its  forms,  that  there  should  be  no  smoking  in 
the  legation  during  office  hours.  In  this  Mr. 
Taylor,  though  an  inveterate  smoker,  cheerfully 
acquiesced  and  never  transgressed  it,  but  as  the 
hands  of  the  clock  pointed  to  the  hour  of  closing, 
he  would  sit  with  a  cigar  in  one  hand  and  a 
match  in  the  other,  and  at  the  first  stroke  would 
say,  '  Now  may  I  light  it  ?  '  On  the  morning 
after  his  departure  to  the  mountains  I  found  a 
box  of  cigars  on  the  office  table  '  with  Mr.  Tay 
lor's  kind  regards,'  and  a  line  to  say  that  his 
carriage  was  at  my  service.  Such  attentions  are 
seldom  experienced  and  never  forgotten. 

"  Mr.  Taylor's  trip  to  the  mountains  was  greatly 
shortened,  and  its  benefits  neutralized,  by  the 
advent  of  General  Grant,  and  the  meeting  of  the 
Berlin  Congress,  which  necessitated  his  presence 
in  the  city  at  the  hottest  period  of  the  year,  and 
much  fatigue  and  late  hours.  This  was  followed 
by  the  annoyance  of  furnishing  and  moving  into 
his  new  residence  and  legation,  which  was  the 
same  *!?ne  occupied  both  by  his  predecessor,  Mr. 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  289 

Davis,  and  his  successor,  Mr.  White.  The  family 
were  in  the  new  quarters  by  November,  and  it 
was  soon  apparent  that  the  hope  of  Mr.  Taylor's 
recovery  was  a  very  faint  one,  and  that  all  the 
best  medical  skill  of  Berlin  could  do  for  him 
was  in  vain.  .  But  to  the  last  he  was  patient 
and  cheerful,  kept  an  eye  on  the  official  work, 
received  his  friends,  wrote  and  read  a  little, 
painted  a  little,  and  finally  dropped  off  quietly  to 
his  last  sleep  while  sitting  in  his  armchair  in  his 
library.  One  of  his  last  pleasures  was  receiving 
the  presentation  copies  of  his  new  poem,  4  Deu- 
kalion,'  from  his  New  York  publishers.  His 
last  words  to  me  were  to  ask  if  there  was  any 
official  business  requiring  his  attention,  and  be 
fore  night  he  passed  away  with  his  devoted  wife 
and  daughter  by  his  side. 

"Could  any  consolation  for  his  family  have 
been  possible,  it  would  have  been  from  the  nu 
merous  and  sincere  expressions  of  respect  and 
sympathy ,  from  the  imperial  family,  officials, 
and  friends,  and  from  the  press  of  both  coun 
tries,  which  immediately  poured  in.  Of  the 
touching  funeral  ceremonies  in  the  darkened 
banquet  hall  and  the  mournful  procession  to  the 
tomb  I  have  only  a  confused  recollection,  but 
when  I  turned  from  the  cemetery  on  my  home 
ward  way  I  felt  that  I  had  lost  a  true  friend, 
and  that  I  could  never  have  such  another  chief." 


290  BAYAED  TAYLOR. 

The  round  of  dinners  and  the  excitement  at 
tendant  upon  Taylor's  departure  from  America 
had  told  disastrously  upon  him.  He  suffered 
intense  pain,  which  his  physicians  were  unable 
or  unwilling  to  explain.  At  first  they  located 
the  seat  of  the  trouble  in  the  colon,  which  led 
Taylor  to  groan,  "  Oh,  that  this  trouble  with  the 
colon  would  come  to  —  a  period." 

His  intention  to  visit  Carlsbad  was  defeated 
by  the  pressing  business  of  the  Berlin  Congress, 
and  by  the  presence  of  General  Grant,  to  whom 
he  was  obliged  to  show  social  attentions.  Work 
and  worry  had  broken  down  the  full  power  of 
his  physical  structure.  That  his  vital  forces 
were  overburdened  was  first  shown  in  the  stoop 
ing  shoulders  and  the  drawn  face,  and  later  be 
came  terribly  evident.  He  was,  by  nature,  at 
all  points  splendidly  endowed  ;  he  had  magnifi 
cent  appetite  and  digestion,  he  could  eat  and 
drink  freely  and  go  at  once  to  his  desk  and  to 
work.  Sickness  was  a  positive  humiliation  to 
him  as  it  was  to  Goethe. 

There  is  a  cruel  and  inscrutable  irony  at 
times  in  human  destiny.  Taylor  at  last  had 
reached  the  solid  ground  upon  which  he  could 
build  his  fame.  His  work  lay  easily  before 
him,  when  in  an  instant  it  was  snatched  from 
his  hand.  It  is  the  cry  of  Paracelsus  again :  — 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  291 

"  Ah,  the  curse,  Aprile,  Aprile  ! 
We  get  so  near  —  so  very,  very  near ! 
'T  is  an  old  tale  :  Jove  strikes  the  Titans  down, 
Not  when  they  set  about  their  mountain-piling, 
But  when  another  rock  would  crown  the  work." 

Hegel  is  nearing  the  completion  of  his  great 
work  when  he  is  stricken  with  cholera.  Fichte 
kisses  his  dying  wife,  and  the  poison  communi 
cates  itself  to  him,  and  the  great  philosophy  is 
left  unfinished. 

Taylor  possessed  a  kind  of  fatalism  in  regard 
to  his  destiny,  and  his  belief  that  man  was  im 
mortal  until  his  work  was  done  no  doubt  sus 
tained  him  with  hope  in  his  last  hours.  Pro 
fessor  Waterman  T.  Hewett  has  told  me  that 
during  Bayard  Taylor's  last  visit  to  Ithaca,  in 
the  spring  and  early  summer  of  1877,  he  spoke 
with  freedom  and  clearness  concerning  his 
plans.  "  He  told  me,"  says  Professor  Hewett, 
"  that  it  was  then  his  purpose  to  lecture  for  two 
years  more,  the  proceeds  of  which  would  enable 
him  to  devote  himself  uninterruptedly  to  work 
upon  his  '  Life  of  Goethe.'  He  estimated  that 
it  would  take  about  two  years  to  write  it  after 
the  preliminary  studies  had  been  made  and  the 
composition  actually  begun.  I  said  to  him  that 
if  this  were  my  work  I  could  not  rest  until  it 
was  accomplished ;  it  would  be  impossible  for 
me  to  contemplate  the  work  from  a  distance, 
without  entering  upon  it.  *  I  should  fear  that 


292  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

it  would  never  be  completed,  that  it  would  drop 
from  my  hands  before  it  was  finished.'  '  On 
the  contrary,'  said  Mr.  Taylor,  '  to  have  some 
thing  before  one  to  look  forward  to  is  the  best 
guarantee  of  life.  When  I  was  a  young  man 
there  was  a  certain  work  which  I  wished  to 
achieve  before  I  was  thirty,  and  I  could  see  no 
thing  in  my  life  beyond  that  date.  I  believed 
that  my  life  would  come  to  an  end  at  that  time. 
But  as  the  time  approached  I  gradually  con 
ceived  the  plan  of  translating  "  Faust."  This  I 
thought  would  occupy  me  until  I  was  forty  and 
I  could  see  nothing  before  me  after  that  time. 
But  during  the  progress  of  this  work  I  formed 
the  purpose  of  writing  the  Life  of  Goethe,  and 
now  I  believe  that  my  life  will  be  spared  until 
it  is  accomplished.  To  have  something  before 
one  to  accomplish  is  the  best  assurance  of  life.' " 
His  great  pain  he  bore  patiently  and  without 
complaint.  On  the  17th  of  December  the  final 
change  came.  On  the  19th  his  mind  wandered 
and  he  was  restless.  He  slept  fitfully.  At  one 
instant  he  looked  up  with  a  look  of  surprise, 
and  in  a  semi-whisper  said,  "  I  must  be  away." 
They  were  the  last  words  of  the  Pilgrim  of 
Eternity.  Directly  after  he  fell  asleep,  and  at 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  he  died,  seated  in 
the  armchair  in  his  library,  which  was  also  the 
office  of  the  legation. 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  293 

The  funeral  ceremonies  were  conducted  by 
the  Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson.  Berthold  Auerbach 
spoke  as  though  to  the  released  spirit  of  his 
friend  and  fellow  writer:  "Thou  wast  born  in 
the  fatherland  of  Benjamin  Franklin ;  and,  like 
him,  thou  didst  work  thy  way  upward  from  a 
condition  of  lowly  labor  to  be  an  apostle  of  the 
spirit  of  purity  and  freedom,  and  a  represen 
tative  of  thy  people  among  a  foreign  people. 
No,  not  among  a  foreign  people :  thou  art  as 
one  of  ourselves  ;  thou  hast  died  in  the  country 
of  Goethe,  to  whose  lofty  spirit  thou  didst  ever 
turn  with  devotion  ;  thou  hast  erected  a  monu 
ment  to  him  before  thy  people,  and  wouldst 
erect  before  all  peoples  another,  which,  alas !  is 
lost  with  thee.  But  thou  thyself  wast  and  art 
one  of  those  whom  he  foretold,  a  disciple  of  a 
universal  literature,  in  which,  high  above  all 
bounds  of  nationality,  in  the  free,  limitless  ether, 
the  purely  human  soars  on  daring  pinions  sun 
wards  in  ever  new  poetic  forms.  .  .  .  Born 
in  the  New  World,  ripened  in  the  Old,  —  and 
alas !  severed  so  early  from  the  tree  of  life  ! 
—  thou  didst  teach  thy  people  the  history  of 
the  German  people,  that  they,  being  brothers, 
should  know  one  another ;  we  bear  that  in  our 
memories.  Thou  didst  put  into  words  of  song 
thy  people's  outburst  of  joy  at  their  centennial 
festival;  when  it  returns  again,  and  our  own 


294  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

mortal  frames  lie  motionless  like  thine  here 
before  us,  then  from  millions  of  lips  yet  un 
born  will  resound  again  the  name  of  BAYARD 
TAYLOR.  Thy  memory  shall  be  blessed !  " 

The  remains  were  brought  to  America,  March 
13,  1879.  At  the  New  York  City  Hall,  where 
the  body  lay  in  state,  a  dirge  was  sung  by  the 
German  societies,  and  an  oration  was  delivered 
by  the  Hon.  Algernon  S.  Sullivan.  Escorted  by 
a  guard  of  honor  from  the  Koltes  Post,  Grand 
Army  of  the  Republic,  the  remains  were  taken 
to  the  railway  station  and  removed  to  Cedar- 
croft.  There  addresses  were  made  by  the  Rev. 
Wm.  H.  Furness  and  Dr.  Franklyn  Taylor. 
The  German  and  American  flags  were  draped 
at  the  Unicorn  in  Kennett. 

The  funeral  procession  proceeded  for  three 
miles  through  the  beautiful  land  that  he  had 
celebrated  in  the  "  Pennsylvania  Pastorals  "  to 
the  Quaker  burial  ground  at  Longwood. 

"  Here  Lowell  came,  in  radiant  youth, 

A  soul  of  fixed  endeavor, 
Here  Parker  spake  with  lips  of  truth 
That  soon  were  closed  forever." 

At  the  grave  the  Rev.  Dr.  H.  N.  Powers  read 
the  funeral  service,  and  a  few  words  were  said 
by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Furness  and  Mr.  E.  C.  Stedman. 
A  burial  ode  was  sung  by  a  Kennett  chorus. 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  295 

His  grave  is  marked  by  a  Greek  altar,  bear 
ing  the  words,  "  He  being  dead  yet  speaketh." 
The  bronze  medallion  on  the  tomb,  surmounted 
by  a  wreath  of  oak  leaves  and  bay,  is  by  Launt 
Thompson.  Upon  the  reverse  of  the  circular 
stone  are  the  lines  from  "Prince  Deukalion:"  — 

"  For  life  whose  source  not  here  began 
Must  fill  the  utmost  sphere  of  man, 
And,  so  expanding-,  lifted  be 
Along-  the  line  of  God's  decree, 
To  find  in  endless  growth  all  good,  — 
In  endless  toil,  beatitude." 

All  the  poets  he  had  loved  paid  tributes  of 
affection  to  his  memory.  Longfellow,  referring 
to  the  scene  in  the  library  of  Taylor's  Berlin 
home,  wrote :  — 

"  Dead  he  lay  among  his  books ! 
The  peace  of  God  was  in  his  looks. 

"  As  the  statues  in  the  gloom 
Watch  o'er  Maximilian's  tomb, 

"  So  those  volumes  from  their  shelves 
Watched  him,  silent  as  themselves. 

"  Ah !  his  hand  will  nevermore 
Turn  their  storied  pages  o'er ; 

"  Nevermore  his  lips  repeat 
Songs  of  theirs,  however  sweet. 

"  Let  the  lifeless  body  rest ! 
He  is  gone,  who  was  its  guest ; 


296  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

"  Gone,  as  travelers  haste  to  leave 
An  inn,  nor  tarry  until  eve. 

"  Traveler  !   in  what  realms  afar, 
In  what  planet,  in  what  star, 

"  In  what  vast,  aerial  space, 
Shines  the  light  upon  thy  face  ? 

"  In  what  gardens  of  delight 
Rest  thy  weary  feet  to-night  ? 

"  Poet !  thou,  whose  latest  verse 
Was  a  garland  on  thy  hearse ; 

"  Thou  hast  sung,  with  organ  tone, 
In  Deukalion's  life,  thine  own  ; 

"  On  the  ruins  of  the  Past 
Blooms  the  perfect  flower  at  last. 

"  Friend  !  but  yesterday  the  bells 
Rang  for  thee  their  loud  farewells ; 

"  And  to-day  they  toll  for  thee, 
Lying  dead  beyond  the  sea ; 

"  Lying  dead  among  thy  books, 
The  peace  of  God  in  all  thy  looks !  " 

E.  C.  Stedman,  R.  H.  Stoddard,  George  H. 
Calvert,  and  George  H.  Boker  wrote  their  "  In 
Memoriam  "  verses  for  a  knightly  comrade  who 
was  without  fear  and  without  reproach.  Chris 
topher  P.  Cranch,  in  his  sonnet,  recognizes  Bay 
ard  Taylor's  purity  of  character  and  loftiness  of 
ambition  :  — 


LAST  DAYS  AND  DEATH.  297 

"  Can  one  so  strong1  in  hope,  so  rich  in  bloom 
That  promised  fruit  of  nobler  worth  than  all 
He  yet  had  given,  drop  thus  with  sudden  fall  ? 
The  busy  brain  no  more  its  work  resume  ? 
Can  death  for  life  so  versatile  find  room  ? 
Still  must  we  fancy  thou  canst  hear  our  call 
Across  the  sea  —  with  no  dividing1  wall 
More  dense  than  space  to  interpose  its  doom. 
Ah  then  —  farewell,  young-hearted  genial  friend  ! 
Farewell,  true  poet,  who  didst  grow  and  build 
From  thought  to  thought  still  upward  and  still  new. 
Farewell,  unsullied  toiler  in  a  guild 
Where  some  defile  their  hands  and  where  so  few 
With  aims  as  pure  strive  faithful  to  the  end." 

I  have  reserved  to  the  last  Thomas  Bailey  Al- 
drich's  exquisite  monody,  whose  faultless  lines 
speak  for  us  the  benediction  and  the  praise  with 
which  we  take  leave  of  one  of  the  bravest  and 
gentlest  of  those  who  by  desert  in  service  have 
won  high  and  secure  places  in  the  history  of 
literature. 

BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

In  other  years  —  lost  youth's  enchanted  years, 
Seen  now,  and  evermore,  through  blinding  tears 
And  empty  longing  for  what  may  not  be  — 
The  Desert  gave  him  back  to  us  ;  the  Sea 
Yielded  him  up ;  the  icy  Norland  strand 
Lured  him  not  long,  nor  that  soft  German  air 
He  loved  could  keep  him.     Ever  his  own  land 
Fettered  his  heart  and  brought  him  back  again. 
What  sounds  are  these  of  farewell  and  despair 
Borne  on  the  winds  across  the  wintry  main ! 


298  BAYARD  TAYLOE. 

What  unknown  way  is  this  that  he  is  gone, 

Our  Bayard,  in  such  silence  and  alone  ? 

What  new  strange  quest  has  tempted  him  once  more 

To  leave  us  ?     Vainly,  standing  by  the  shore, 

We  strain  our  eyes.     But  patience !  when  the  soft 

Spring  gales  are  blowing  over  Cedarcroft, 

Whitening  the  hawthorn  ;  when  the  violets  bloom 

Along  the  Brandywine,  and  overhead 

The  sky  is  blue  as  Italy's,  he  will  come  .  .  . 

In  the  wind's  whisper,  in  the  swaying  pine, 

In  song  of  bird  and  blossoming  of  vine, 

And  all  fair  things  he  loved  ere  he  was  dead! 


APPENDIX. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

I.  WORKS. 

Ximena,  or  the  Battle  of  the  Sierra  Morena,  and  other  Poems. 

Philadelphia,  Herman  Hooker.     1844.     12mo. 

[This  volume  was  suppressed  afterwards  by  its  author.] 
Views  Afoot ;  or  Europe  seen  with  Knapsack  and  Staff.    With 

a  preface   by  N.  P.   Willis.     In  two  parts.     New  York, 

Wiley  &  Putnam.     1846.     12mo. 
Rhymes  of  Travel,  Ballads  and  Poems.     New  York,  Geo.  P. 

Putnam.     1849. 

[Really  published  in  December,  1848.] 
Eldorado,   or,    Adventures   in   the   Path  of  Empire.      With 

illustrations  by  the  author.     In  two  volumes.     New  York, 

Geo.  P.  Putnam.     [May]  1850.     London,  Richard  Bentley. 

1850.     12mo. 
A  Book  of  Romances,  Lyrics   and  Songs.     Boston,  Ticknor, 

Reed  and  Fields.     1851.     16mo. 
A  Journey  to  Central  Africa,  or  Life  and  Landscapes  from 

Egypt  to  the  Negro  Kingdoms  of  the  White  Nile.     With 

a  map  and  illustrations  by  the  author.     New  York,  G.  P. 

Putnam  &  Co.     [August]  1854.     12mo. 
The  Lands  of  the  Saracen  ;    or  Pictures  of  Palestine,   Asia 

Minor,  Sicily  and  Spain.     New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  &  Co.  ; 

London,  Sampson  Low,  Son  &  Co.     [October]  1854.     12mo. 
Poems  of  the  Orient.     Boston,   Ticknor   and   Fields.     [Octo 
ber  27]  1854.     16mo. 
A  Visit  to  India,  China,  and  Japan  in  the  Year  1853.     New 

York,  G.  P.  Putnam  &  Co. ;  London,  Sampson  Low,  Son  & 

Co.     [September]  1855.     12mo. 


300  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

Poems  of   Home  and  Travel.     Boston,  Ticknor    and   Fields. 

[November]  1855.     16mo. 
Views   Afoot.     Revised   edition   with   a   new   preface.     New 

York.     [November]  1855.     12mo. 
Cyclopaedia  of  Modern  Travel.     Cincinnati,  Moore,  Willstach, 

Keys  &  Co.     1856.     8vo. 
Northern  Travel :    Summer  and  Winter  Pictures  of  Sweden, 

Denmark,  and   Lapland.     New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  ;  Lon 
don,  Sampson  Low,  Son  &  Co.     1857.     12mo. 
Travels  in  Greece  and  Russia,  with  an  Excursion  to  Crete. 

New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam ;  London,  Sampson  Low,  Son  & 

Co.     1859.     12mo. 
At  Home  and  Abroad  :  A  Sketch-Book  of  Life,  Scenery  and 

Men.     New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam ;  London,  Sampson  Low, 

Son  &  Co.     [November]  1859.    12mo. 
Cyclopaedia  of  Modern  Travel.     Cincinnati.     1860.     Revised 

and  enlarged  edition,  2  vols. 
At  Home  and  Abroad,  II.  Series.     New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam. 

1862.  12mo. 

The  Poet's  Journal.  Boston,  Ticknor  and  Fields ;  London, 
Sampson  Low  &  Co.  [December]  1862.  12mo. 

Hannah  Thurston,  A  Story  of  American  Life.  New  York, 
G.  P.  Putnam  ;  London,  Sampson  Low  &  Co.  [November] 

1863.  12mo. 

The  Poems  of  Bayard  Taylor.  [Blue  and  Gold  edition.] 
Boston,  Ticknor  and  Fields.  [October]  1864.  12mo. 

John  Godfrey's  Fortunes :  Related  by  Himself.  A  Story  of 
American  Life.  New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  ;  London,  Samp 
son  Low,  Son  &  Co.  [November]  1864.  12mo. 

Poems.     Cabinet  edition.     1865. 

The  Story  of  Kennett.  New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  ;  London, 
Sampson  Low,  Son  &  Co.  [March]  1866.  12mo. 

The  Picture  of  St.  John.  Boston,  Fields,  Osgood  &  Co. 
[October]  1866.  12mo. 

Colorado:  A  Summer  Trip.  New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  & 
Son.  [January]  1867.  12mo. 

The  Golden  Wedding.  A  Masque.  Privately  printed.  Phila 
delphia,  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  1868.  16mo. 


APPENDIX.  301 

By-Ways  of  Europe.     New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam  &  Son.    1869. 

Views  Afoot.  New  edition.  Revised  by  the  author,  for 
Low's  copyright,  cheap  editions  of  American  Books.  Lon 
don,  Sampson  Low,  Son,  and  Marston.  1869.  12mo. 

Joseph  and  His  Friend.  New  York,  G.  P.  Putnam.  [Novem 
ber  24]  1870.  12mo. 

Faust,  A  Tragedy,  by  Johann  Wolfgang  von  Goethe.  Part  I. 
Translated  in  the  Original  Metres,  by  Bayard  Taylor.  Bos 
ton,  Fields,  Osgood  &  Co.  [December]  1870. 

Translation  of  Faust,  Part  II.  Boston,  James  R.  Osgood  & 
Co.  [March  25]  1871.  Q. 

Faust,  Parts  I.  and  IL  London,  Strahan  &  Co.  [July]  1871. 
8vo. 

Faust,  Part  I.  Leipzig,  F.  A.  Brockhaus.  [November  or 
December]  1871.  8vo. 

The  Masque  of  the  Gods.  Boston,  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co. 
[April  10]  1872.  12mo. 

Beauty  and  the  Beast,  and  Tales  of  Home.  New  York,  G.  P. 
Putnam  &  Sons.  [April  9]  1872.  12mo. 

Lars :  a  Pastoral  of  Norway.  Boston,  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co. 
[March  1,  1873.  London,  Strahan  &  Co.  (March  8)  1873]. 
12mo. 

The  Prophet.  A  Tragedy.  Boston,  James  R.  Osgood  &  Co. 
[September  13]  1874.  12mo. 

Egypt  and  Iceland  in  the  Year  1874.  New  York,  G.  P.  Put 
nam's  Sons.  [October]  1874.  12mo. 

A  School  History  of  Germany :  from  the  Earliest  Period  to 
the  Establishment  of  the  German  Empire  in  1871.  With 
one  hundred  and  twelve  illustrations  and  six  historical  maps. 
New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.  1874.  8vo. 

Home  Pastorals,  Ballads  and  Lyrics.  Boston,  James  R.  Os 
good  &  Co.  [October]  1875.  12mo. 

Faust.     Kennett  edition.      Boston,  J.  R.  Osgood  &  Co.     1875. 

The  Eeho^Club  and  other  Literary  Diversions.  Boston,  J.  R. 
Osgood  &  Co.  [July]  1876.  16mo. 

Boys  of  Other  Countries  ;  Stories  for  American  Boys.  New 
York,  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.  1876.  8vo. 


302  BAYARD   TAYLOR. 

The  National  Ode,  in  facsimile.     Boston,  J.  R.  Osgood  &  Co. 

1876.    8vo, 

Faust,  Part  II.     Leipzig,  F.  A.  Brockhaus.     1876.    8vo. 
Prince  Deukalion,  A  Lyrical  Drama.     Boston,  Houghton,  Os- 

good  &  Co. ;  London,  Triibner  &  Co.   [November]  1878.  8vo. 
Studies  in  German  Literature,  with  an  Introduction  by  George 

H.  Boker.     New  York.     1879.     12mo. 

Critical  Essays,  and  Literary  Notes.     New  York,  G.  P.  Put 
nam's  Sons.     1880.     12mo. 
The  Poetical  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor.     Household  Edition. 

Boston,  Houghton,  Osgood  and  Co.     1880.     12mo. 
The  Dramatic  Works  of  Bayard  Taylor,  with  notes  by  Marie 

Hansen-Taylor.     Boston,   Houghton,   Mifflin  &  Co.     1880. 

12mo. 
A  History  of  Germany  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present 

day,  with  an  additional  chapter  by  Marie  Hansen-Taylor. 

New  York,  D.  Appleton  &  Co.     1894.    8vo. 

II.  CHRONOLOGY  OF  THE  "POEMS  OF  THE 
ORIENT." 

(From  the  dates  given  by  Bayard  Taylor  in  the  manuscript  book 
in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Richard  Henry  Stoddard.) 

Smyrna.     October,  1851. 

To  a  Persian  Boy.     October,  1851.     (Written  at  Smyrna.) 

The  Nilotic  Drinking  Song.    January  9,  1852.     (Written  on 

the  Nile,  in  Ethiopia.) 

Kilimandjaro.     January,  1852.     (White  Nile.) 
The  Orient.     July,  1852.     (Constantinople.) 
Mimosa  Blooms.     November,  1852.     (Cadiz.) 
The  Garden  of  Irem.     November,  1852.     (Granada.) 
The  Poet  in  the  East.     February,  1853. 
Aurum  Potabile.    February,  1853. 
The  Arab  Warrior.     March,  1853, 
On  the  Sea.     March,  1853. 
Arab  to  the  Palm.     July,  1853. 
The  Goblet.    August,  1853. 


APPENDIX.  303 

Khalil.    August,  1853. 

Arab  Prayer.    September,  1853. 

Requiem  in  the  South.     September,  1853. 

Nubia.     September,  1853. 

Birth  of  the  Horse.     September,  1853. 

Charmian.     September,  1853. 

Hymn  to  Air.     October,  1853. 

Angel  of  Patevin.     October  15,  1853. 

Desert  Hymn  to  the  Sun.     October  16,  1853. 

Voyage  of  a  Dream.     October  22,  1853. 

Saturday  Night  at  Sea.     October  23,  1853. 

Gulistan.     October  24,  1853. 

Ural  Winter.     October  24,  1853. 

Bedouin  Song. '  October  29,  1853. 

Shekh.     October  30,  1853. 

Amran's    Wooing.     November  4,    1853.      (Written  off   the 

Cape  of  Good  Hope.) 

Birth  of  the  Prophet.     November  29,  1853. 
Morning  at  Tyre.     December  7,  1853. 
A  Picture.     December  15,  1853, 
Jerusalem.     December  16,  1853. 
Lament.     October  12,  1854. 

III.  CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST  OF  WRITINGS. 

A  Visit  to  the  Battle-ground  of  Brandywine.  (Published  in 
the  "  Register,"  West  Chester.)  1840. 

Soliloquy  of  a  Young  Poet.  Published  in  "Saturday  Evening 
Post,"  Philadelphia.  (Nine  poems  written,  three  published.) 
1841. 

Eleven  poems  written,  two  of  them  published  in  his  first  vol 
ume.  Rosalie  (Ximena)  in  progress.  The  Artist  of  Raven 
na,  and  other  prose  written  for  a  Bucks  County  paper.  1842. 

About  seventeen  poems  written  and  Rosalie  completed.    1843. 

Twenty-six  poems,  some  translated  from  the  German.  Let 
ters  of  Travel  to  Philadelphia,  "  Saturday  Evening  Post," 
and  "  United  States  Gazette."  1844. 


304  BAYARD  TAYLOR. 

Ximena.     1844. 

Thirty-two  poems ;  some  translations ;  letters  of  travel.     1845. 

Letters  for  "  Saturday  Evening  Post  "  and  "  Tribune."  About 
twenty  poems.  Views  Afoot.  1846. 

Eight  poems.  The  Demon  of  the  Mirror,  and  editorials  and 
reviews  for  the  "  Phoenixville  Pioneer."  1847. 

Twenty-four  poems :  among  them  the  first  California  Ballads, 
published  anonymously  in  the  "  Literary  World,"  The  Ode 
to  Shelley  and  The  Continents.  Letters  from  New  York 
to  "  Pioneer "  and  "  Saturday  Evening  Post."  Reviews 
for  "  Graham's  Magazine."  A  tale,  La  Fioraja.  ("  Union 
Magazine.")  Sketches  for  "  The  Opal."  Rhymes  of  Travel. 
1848. 

Ten  poems.  Ariel,  Kubleh,  Odalisque,  Storm  Lines,  Taurus, 
I  plucked  for  Thee,  Pine  Forest  of  Monterey.  Letters  of 
Travel  for  "  Tribune."  Translation  of  "  Raphael."  1849. 

Twenty  poems,  among  them  Manuela,  Hylas,  From  the  Bo 
som  of  Ocean.  Lecture,  "  The  Animal  Man."  Eldorado. 
1850. 

Eleven  poems.  Letters  of  Travel  in  "  Tribune."  Cyclopaedia 
of  Literature  and  Art.  Book  of  Romances.  1851. 

Nine  poems.     Letters  of  Travel  to  "  Tribune."     1852. 

Thirty-three  poems.     "  Tribune  "  letters.     1853. 

Fourteen  poems.  Three  lectures.  Journey  to  Central  Africa. 
Lands  of  the  Saracen.  Poems  of  the  Orient.  1854. 

Twelve  poems.  "  Tribune  "  letters.  Visit  to  India,  China, 
and  Japan.  Poems-  of  Home  and  Travel.  1855. 

Four  poems.  "  Tribune "  letters.  Cyclopaedia  of  Travel. 
1856. 

"  Tribune  "  letters.     Northern  Travel.     1857. 

Three  poems.  "Tribune"  letters.  Lecture  on  "Moscow." 
1858. 

Nine  poems.  Short  papers  for  New  York  "  Mercury."  In 
troduction  to  Stoddard's  Life  of  Humboldt.  Travels  in 
Greece  and  Russia.  At  Home  and  Abroad.  1859. 

Thirty-five  poems  (?).  Papers  about  California  in  New 
York  "Mercury."  Confessions  of  a  Medium.  ("Atlantic 


APPENDIX.  305 

Monthly,"  vol.  6 :  699.)  Papers  for  "Independent."  An 
Interview  with  Martin  Luther,  in  "Harper's  Magazine," 
January,  1861.  1860. 

Seven  poems.  The  Haunted  Shanty.  ("  Atlantic  Monthly," 
vol.  8:  57.)  The  Experiences  of  the  A.  C.  ("Atlantic 
Monthly,"  vol.  9 :  170.)  The  German  Burns.  A  German 
Shooting  Match.  A  Walk  through  the  Franconian  Swit 
zerland.  A  Home  in  the  Thuringian  Forest.  The  Chirop 
odist.  ("Harper's  Magazine,"  March,  1862.)  One  of  My 
Predecessors.  Ernst  II.  of  Saxe  Coburg-Gotha.  (Published 
in  "  Harper's  Magazine,"  November,  1861.)  1861. 

Friend  Eli's  Daughter.  ("  Atlantic  Monthly,"  vol.  10  :  99 ; 
"  Eng.  Dom.  Monthly,"  vol.  21 :  17,  74.  "  Sharpe,"  vol.  37 : 
244.) 

A  Cruise  on  Lake  Ladoga.  At  Home  and  Abroad,  II.  Series. 
The  Poet's  Journal.  1862. 

A  Poem :  The  Neva.  Hannah  Thurston.  Lecture :  Russia 
and  her  People.  1863. 

Six  poems.  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes.  Thackeray.  ("  At 
lantic,"  vol.  13:  371.)  Between  Europe  and  Asia.  Lecture, 
Ourselves  and  our  Relations.  Poems.  "  Blue  and  Gold  " 
edition.  1864. 

Eleven  poems.  (Seven  sonnets.)  Winter  Life  in  St.  Peters 
burg.  The  Author  of  "Saul."  Beauty  and  the  Beast 
(written).  1865. 

Four  poems.  The  Little  Post  Boy.  The  Pasha's  Son.  The 
Two  Herd  Boys.  Friedrich  Riickert.  ("  Atlantic,"  vol.  18  : 
33.)  A  Distinguished  Character.  Letters  to  the  "  Trib 
une  "  from  Colorado.  Lecture,  "  American  Life."  Intro 
duction  to  Frith jof's  Saga.  The  Strange  Friend.  ("  Atlan 
tic,"  vol.  19 :  54.)  Review  of  Swinburne.  ("  North  Amer 
ican  Review,"  104:  287.)  The  Story  of  Kennett.  The 
Picture  of  St.  John.  1866. 

Two  poems.  Travel  in  the  United  States.  The  Little  Land 
of  Appenzell.  ("  Atlantic,"  20 :  213.)  From  Perpignan  to 
Montserrat.  A  Visit  to  the  Balearic  Islands.  ("Atlantic," 
20:  680;  21 :  73.)  Catalonian  Bridle  Roads.  The  Repub- 


306  BAYABD  TAYLOE. 

lie  of  the  Pyrenees.  The  Grande  Chartreuse.  The  Kyff- 
hauser  and  its  Legends.  Twenty  letters  to  the  "  Tribune." 
Colorado  :  A  Summer  Trip.  1867. 

Nine  poems,  including  the  German  dedication,  An  Goethe. 
Faust,  Part  I.,  completed.  Letters  for  the  "Tribune."  A 
Week  on  Capri.  ("  Atlantic,"  vol.  21  :  740.)  A  Trip  to 
Ischia.  ("  Atlantic,"  vol.  22 :  155.)  The  Island  of  Mad- 
dalena.  ("  Atlantic,"  vol.  22 :  326.)  The  Land  of  Paoli. 
("  Atlantic,"  vol.  22  :  611.)  The  Teutoburger  Forest.  The 
Swabian  Alb.  Mural  Paintings  of  Pompeii.  ("  Putnam," 
vol.  12  :  1.)  Can  a  Life  Hide  Itself  ?  ("Atlantic,"  vol.  23  : 
605.)  Mrs.  Strongitharm's  Report.  ("Galaxy,"  vol.  8: 
811.)  Contributions  to  "  Hearth  and  Home."  The  Golden 
Wedding,  a  Masque.  1868. 

Eleven  poems,  including  the  Gettysburg  Ode,  and  the  August 
Pastoral,  "  Literature,  Art,  and  Science  "  for  "  Putnam's 
Magazine."  Preface,  To  the  English  Reader,  in  Views 
Afoot.  Introduction  to  the  English  translation  of  Auer- 
bach's  "  Villa  on  the  Rhine."  Jacob  Flint's  Journey.  Lec 
ture  on  "  Reform  and  Art."  Address  at  the  Dedication  of 
the  Halleck  Monument.  Reviews  for  the  "  Tribune."  By- 
Ways  of  Europe.  1869. 

Five  poems,  among  them  the  German  "Ju bellied."  The 
"Rhine-Guard,"  translated.  Notes  for  "Faust."  "Lit 
erature,  Art,  and  Science,"  for  "Putnam's."  Joseph  and 
His  Friend.  Lectures  on  German  Literature.  Reviews  for 
"Tribune."  Letters  for  "Tribune."  "Faust,"  Part  I., 
published.  1870. 

Five  poems.  Twin-Love.  ("Atlantic,"  vol.  28  :  257.)  Paper 
on  Humboldt.  ("Harper's  Weekly.")  Lectures  on  Ger 
man  Literature.  Down  the  Eastern  Shore.  ("  Harper's 
Weekly.")  The  Northwest  Letters.  ("Tribune.")  Sights 
in  and  around  Yedo.  ("  Scribner's,"  vol.  13  :  132.)  The 
Heart  of  Arabia.  ("Scribner's,"  vol.  3:  545.)  Editorial 
work  on  Library  of  Travel,  for  "Scribner's."  "Faust," 
Part  II.,  published.  Introduction  and  Dialogues  of  the 
Echo  Club.  1871. 


APPENDIX.  307 

Eighteen  poems.  Amerikanische  Dichter  und  Dichtkunst. 
The  Masque  of  the  Gods.  Beauty  and  the  Beast.  Lars 
(written).  1872. 

Eight  poems.  Twelve  letters  for  the  "  Tribune."  Two  arti 
cles  for  "  Tribune."  An  article  in  "  Neue  Freie  Presse  "  of 
Vienna.  School  History  of  Germany  (written).  Who  was 
She  ?  ("  Atlantic,"  vol.  34  :  257.)  Lars  (published).  1873. 

Six  poems.  Ancient  Troy  (hi  "  Tribune  ")•  Egypt  Revis 
ited.  (Eleven  letters  in  "  Tribune.")  African  Exploration. 
(Two  articles  for  "  Tribune.")  The  Fayoom.  Letters  from 
Iceland  (for  "Tribune").  Ancient  Egypt.  (A  Lecture.) 
The  Prophet,  A  Tragedy.  Egypt  and  Iceland.  School 
History  of  Germany  (published).  1874. 

About  six  poems,  and  Prince  Deukalion  begun.  Lecture 
on  Jean  Paul  Richter.  Letters  about  the  Bunker  Hill 
Celebration  for  "  Tribune."  Alongshore.  (Six  letters  for 
the  "  Tribune.")  Lecture,  Literature  as  an  Art.  Ion  of 
Iceland.  ("  St.  Nicholas.")  Reviews  of  Books  for  the  "  In 
ternational  Review,"  and  "Tribune."  Article  on  Schiller 
for  Johnson's  Cyclopaedia.  Edits  "  Picturesque  Europe " 
(D.  Apple  ton).  Home  Pastorals.  1875. 

Ten  poems.  The  Young  Serf.  ("  St.  Nicholas  Magazine.") 
June  Days  at  Weimar.  ("Atlantic,"  vol.  39  :  61.)  An 
Impossible  Story.  ("  Scribner's,"  vol.  16:131.)  Letters 
for  "  Cincinnati  Commercial."  The  Echo  Club.  Boys  of 
Other  Countries.  1876. 

Five  poems.  Translation  of  Schiller's  "Don  Carlos."  Al 
fred  Tennyson.  ("  International  Review,"  vol.  4  : 397.)  His 
torical  Introduction  to  "  Bismarck "  by  Geo.  Hezekiel. 
Letters  for  "  Cincinnati  Commercial."  The  Halleck  Statue. 
("  North  American  Review,"  vol.  125 :  60.)  Ephesus,  Cy 
prus,  Mycenae.  ("  North  American  Review,"  vol.  126  :  111.) 
Letters  from  White  Sulphur  Springs.  ("Tribune.")  Susan 
Lane's  Christmas.  ("  Weekly  Tribune.")  Studies  of  Ani 
mal  Nature.  ("  Atlantic  Monthly,"  vol.  39  :  135.)  1877. 

Four  poems.  Contributions  to  "  Tribune."  Life  and  Habits 
Abroad.  ("  Semi- Weekly  Tribune.")  Prince  Deukalion, 
1878. 


INDEX. 


No  references  are  made  to  the  Appendix 


ABBOTSFOBD,  Scott's  home  at,  121. 

Abolition,  a  passionate  interest  in 
Chester  County,  123,  124. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  37. 

Agatha,  St.,  festival  of,  91. 

Agnew,  Mary,  first  acquaintance 
with  Taylor,  58 ;  Grace  Green 
wood's  account  of,  58  ;  letters  to, 
62,  67  ;  illness  of,  78-81,  83  ;  mar 
riage  and  death  of,  84  ;  111  note. 

Aitken,  Robert,  prints  the  first  Eng 
lish  Bible  in  America,  3. 

"Albion,  The, "137,  139. 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  friend  of 
Taylor,  73 ;  visits  Cedarcroft,  133  ; 
edits  the  "Saturday  Press,"  136, 
137 ;  congratulates  Taylor  on  his 
translation  of  "  Faust,"  193  ;  sug 
gests  the  theme  of  "  The  Prophet," 
249, 253 ;  monody  on  death  of  Tay 
lor,  297,  298. 

Aldridge,  Ira,  his  performance  of 
Macbeth,  147. 

Alfleri,  how  he  learned  Greek,  114. 

Alger,  Rev.  W.  R.,  256. 

Allen,  George,  student  of  Coleridge, 
9  note. 

Alison,  Sir  A.,  39. 

Allston,  Washington,  19. 

"  Alongshore  "  letters  to  "  Tri 
bune,"  124,  274. 

American  Academy  (Boston),  2. 

44  American  Legend,  The,"  79. 

14  Amran's  Wooing,"  219. 

14  Analectic  Magazine,  The,"  4. 

Andersen,  Hans  Christian,  110. 

Andorra,  Republic  of,  188. 

Andrassy,  283. 

Andre"e,  Dr.,  107 

Antonelli,  Cardinal,  275. 

Appenzell,  little  land  of,  187. 

Argyll,  Duke  of,  98. 

44  Ariel  in  the  Cloven  Pine-Tree,"  70. 

Aristology,  124. 

Arnold,  George,  137,  138. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  215,  231. 

Astor  House,  dinners  at  the,  142. 


Astor  Place  riots,  75. 

Athens,  residence  in,  113. 

"  At  Home  and  Abroad,"  115, 116. 

"  Atlantic  Monthly,"  beginning  of 

the,    136,  137 ;    contributions  to, 

146,  147,  187,  189,  209,  221,  252  ; 

Taylor  feels  at  home  in  the,  205, 

206. 
Auerbach,  Berthold,  his  address  at 

Taylor's  funeral,  49,  107,  293. 
Ayr,  the  Burns  festival  at,  39. 

Baird,  Alexander,  208. 

Baltimore,  Taylor  lectures  in,  102. 

Bancroft,  George,  distributes  the 
translation  of  44 Faust"  in  Ger 
many,  193. 

"  Barclay  of  Ury,"  207. 

Barclay,  William,  207. 

Barnum,  P.  T.  offers  a  prize  for  an 
original  song  for  Jenny  Lind,  82. 

Barrett,  Lawrence,  278. 

Earth,  Dr.,  commends  Taylor's 
books  of  travel,  98. 

Barton,  Bernard,  7,  238 ;  first  meet 
ing  with  Taylor,  47;  commends 
44  Views  Afoot,  "51. 

Bartram,  John,  14,  28. 

Bayard,  James  A.,  15. 

Beaconsfield,  Earl  of,  283. 

Beaconsfield,  the  home  of  Burke» 
121. 

44  Beauty  and  the  Beast,"  166. 

44  Bedouin  Song,"  220,  221,  268. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  141. 

Bell,  Robert,  prints  the  first  Aineri. 
can  edition  of  Milton,  3. 

Benares,  92. 

Benedict,  Jules,  83. 

Benjamin,  Park,  31,  slanders  Taylor, 

Berlin,  107,  193 ;  Congress  at,  288, 

290. 

Bierstadt,  190. 
Bigelow,  John,  142. 
Bismarck,  his  criticism  of  "  Joseph 

and  His  Friend,"  177 ;  interested  i« 


310 


INDEX. 


the  translation  of  "  Faust,"  193  ; 

Taylor's  acquaintance  with,  283.  ' 
Black,  Mrs.,  "the  Maid  of  Athens," 

115. 

Bohemianism  in  New  York,  135-140. 
Boker,  George  Henry,  10 ;  origin  of 

his  friendship  for  Taylor,  71,  72  ; 

letters  to,   83,   85,   93;    guest  at 

Cedarcroft,  133,  191 ;  estimate  of 

Taylor,  212  ;  parody  of,  248;  "In 

Memoriam  "    verses    for  Taylor, 

297. 

Bolraar's  Academy,  19. 
"Book    of    Romances,  Lyrics,  and 

Songs,  A,"  86,  217. 
Botta,  Mrs.,  her  salon,  65,66. 
"  Boys  of  Other  Countries,"  276. 
Brackenridge,  H.  H.,  writes  the  first 

satirical  novel,  6. 
Brainard,  J.  G.  C.,  217. 
Braisted,    Taylor's     companion    in 

northern  travel,  107. 
Brandywine,  The  battlefield  of,  23  ; 

Read's  verses  on,  33. 
Bremen,  109. 
Breneman,  Melchior,  12. 
Brinton,  D.  G.,  28. 
Brooke,  Stopford  A.,  243. 
Brooklyn,  society  in,  65;    Taylor's 

family  living  in,  11(5. 
Brougham,  John,  founds  "  The  Lan 
tern,"^?. 
Brousa,  89. 

Brown,  Charles  Brockden,  3,  61. 
Browne,  C.  F.  (Artemus  Ward),  137. 
Browne,  Ross,  221. 
Browning,    Elizabeth  Barrett,  189- 

190,  214,  247. 
Browning,  Robert,  86,  87,  189,  215, 

248,  261,  266. 

Bruce,  D.,  Scotch-Irish  poet,  6. 
Bryant,  William  Cullen,  9,  20,  32, 

59,  63,  141,  192,  241,  248,  260, 281 ; 

Taylor's  poem  on  the  death  of, 

269. 
Bucher,  Christian  and  Ann,  relatives 

of  Bayard  Taylor,  12. 
Buck,  Dudley,  241. 
Bufleb,  August,  Taylor's  companion 

upon  the  Nile,  91,  110,  111  ;  visits 

Cedarcroft,  143,  144. 
Bull,  Ole,  plants  a  colony  of  Danes 

in  Pennsylvania,  4  note. 
Burke,  Edmund,  121. 
Burns  festival,  the,  39. 
Burton,  Robert,  231. 
Burton,  William  E.,  sells"  The  Gen 
tleman's  Magazine,"  30. 
Butler,  Judge  William,  30. 


Byron,  Lord,  16, 18,  33, 112, 115, 229, 

233. 
"  By- Ways  of  Europe,"  %  ;  quoted, 

147  ;  published,  192. 

Cairo,  206,  253. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  37. 

"  Caliban,  the  Witch's  Whelp,"  70. 

California,  the  country  in  1849,  75- 
77,  84 ;  second  visit  to,  196. 

California,  poem  "  On  leaving,"  117. 

"  Californian  Ballads,"  69. 

Calvert,  George  H.,  296. 

"  Camadeva,"  222,  223. 

Cameron,  Simon,  minister  to  Russia, 
146,  148,  153. 

Camoens,  writes  "The  Lusiad  "  at 
Macao,  93. 

Campbell,  Thomas,  2,  8,  16,  65. 

Canandaigua,  102. 

Canizares,  teaches  Taylor  Spanish, 
30. 

"  Canopus,"  262. 

Caprera,  a  distant  view  of,  191. 

Capri,  a  week  on,  190. 

"Captain  Riley's  Narrative,"  16. 

Carl  August,  201. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  231,  282. 

Carroll,  Lewis,  245. 

Cary,  Alice  and  Phoebe,  31. 

Cascade  Ravine,  bridge  over  the,  75. 

Catalonia,  188. 

Catania,  91. 

"  Cathedral,  The,"  243. 

Cedarcroft  occupied  by  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  118 ;  description  of,  119-123, 
130-134;  143,  145,  157,  170,  182, 
187,  191,  197-199,  209,  224,  225, 
237,  266,  294. 

"Cedarcroft,  To  the  Mistress  of," 
226. 

Century  Association,  how  it  was 
formed,  141  ;'  146  ;  banquette  Tay 
lor  at,  281. 

"  Centennial  Ode."  See  National 
Ode." 

Chambers,  Ruth  Anne,  17. 

Chandler,  Joseph  R.,  36. 

Channing,  W.  E.,  death  of,  21. 

Charlecote,  oaks  of,  120. 

Chester  County,  population  of,  6  ; 
Taylor  born  in,  12  ;  his  father  sher 
iff  of,  19  ;  23,  56  ;  Taylor's  attec- 
tion  for,  116,  121,  124;  peculiari 
ties  of,  123-125,  169  ;  167,  210, 281. 

Chivers,  Dr.  Thomas  Holley,  248, 
249. 

"  Choate,  Adeliza,"  character  in 
"  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes,"  66. 


INDEX. 


311 


Choate,  Rufus,  136. 

"  Christian  Inquirer,  The,"  68. 

Church,  F.  E.,  227. 

"  Cincinnati  Commercial,"  278. 

Civil  War,  its  effect  upon  writers, 
143. 

Clapp,  Henry,  Jr.,  founds  "  The  Sat 
urday  Press,"  136,138. 

Clark,  Lewis  Gaylord,  75. 

Clay,  Cassius  M.,  succeeds  Simon 
Cameron  as  minister  to  Russia, 
148,  152. 

Cliffton,  William,  2,  9. 

Clough,  Arthur  Hugh,  231. 

Coburg,  107. 

Coleridge,  Samuel  Taylor,  1,  9,  194. 

Collins,    Mortimer    (on    "  Aristolo- 

gy,"),  124. 

Colman,  Samuel,  227. 

"  Colorado :  A  Summer  Trip,"  178 
note. 

Column  Club,  141. 

"  Commemoration  Ode,"  242. 

Congdon,  Charles  T.,  142. 

Constantinople,  changes  in,  115. 

"  Continents,  The,"  71,  216. 

Cooper,  James  Fenimore,  9,  30,  64, 
125. 

Cope,  E.  D.,  28. 

Corfu,  a  visit  to,  112. 

Corinth,  114. 

Cornell  University,  lectures  at,  195, 
196,  274,  278.  ' 

Cornwall,  Barry,  248. 

Corsica,  190. 

Cox,  Henry  Hamilton,  the  original 
of  Henry  Donnelly,  167. 

Cranch,  C.  P.,  296. 

Crete,  an  excursion  to,  113,  114. 

Curtis,  George  William,  as  a  lec 
turer,  101 ;  visitor  at  Cedarcroft, 
133 ;  intimacy  with  Taylor,  142 ; 
mobbed  in  Philadelphia,  144 ;  re 
semblance  to  Matthew  Arnold, 
215 ;  account  of  the  banquet  at 
Century  Club,  281. 

Curtius,  Professor  Ernst,  283. 

"  Cyclopaedia  of  Literature  and  the 
Fine  Arts,"  85. 

"  Cyclopaedia  of  Travel,"  104,  143. 

Dana,  Charles  A.,  141,  142. 

Dana,  R.  H.,  lectures  on  old  English 

Literature,  73 ;  anecdote  of  "  The 

Buccaneer,"  74 ;  79. 
Dante,   translated    by  Longfellow, 

192. 
Darlington,  a  Cheater  County  name, 


Darlington,  Hannah,  assists  Taylor 
in  writing  "Views  Afoot,"  51. 

Darwin,  Charles,  231. 

"Daughter  of  Egypt,  veil  Thine 
Eyes,'*  222,  223. 

Davis,  Bancroft,  minister  to  Ger 
many,  288,  289. 

Dawes,  Rufus.  217. 

Deane,  Martha,  22,  170. 

Dehra,  92, 

Delaware  County,  6,  14. 

Delaware,  State  of,  15. 

Delta  Kappa  Epsilon  Fraternity, 
210. 

"  Democratic  Review,  The,"  53. 

Dennett,  J.  K.,  65. 

Dennie,  Joseph,  3,  61. 

De  Quincey,  Thomas,  136. 

De  Witt,  Simeon,  156. 

Dickens,  Charles,  24. 

Dickinson,  Anna,  124. 

Dickinson,  John,  his  "Farmer's 
Letters,"  2. 

Dixon,  George  W.,  62  note. 

Dresden,  Taylor's  literary  acquaint 
ances  in,  107. 

Duganne,  A.  J.  H.,  61,  62. 

Durand,  A.  B.,  141. 

Duyckinck's  "Cyclopaedia,"  1. 

Duyckinck  brothers,  the,  65. 

"Earth-Life,"  126. 

Ebers,  Georg,  231. 

"  Ecce  Homo,"  231. 

"  Echo  Club,"  185 ;  described.  247- 
249. 

Edgewood,  home  of  D.  G.  Mitchell, 
122. 

"  Egypt  and  Iceland,"  209. 

Egypt,  travels  in,  86 ;  letters  from, 
206,  231,  254. 

"  Eldorado,"  described,  76-78  ;  100. 

Eliot,  George,  261. 

Elizabeth,  shipwreck  of  the,  79,  80. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  his  opinion  of  lec 
turing,  103  ;  guest  at  Cedarcroft, 
133 ;  parodied  in  the  "  Echo  Club," 
248. 

English,  Thomas  Dunn,  lectures 
upon  phrenology,  19,  20. 

"  Epicedium  :  William  Cullen  Bry 
ant,"  269,  270. 

"  Eric  and  Axel,"  218. 

Erie  Canal,  the,  its  opening  in  1825, 
9. 

Etna,  eruption  of  Mount,  91. 

Etonians,  the,  how  they  employed 
Ottava  rima,  229. 

"  Euphorion  "  (quoted),  70,  268. 


312 


INDEX. 


41  Evangeline,"  235. 

Evans,  Henry  S.,  Taylor  appren 
ticed  to,  28,  35. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  241. 

Everett,  H.  S.,  account  of  Taylor  as 
minister  to  Germany,  284-289. 

Falk,  the  daughter  of,  201. 

"Faust,"  translation  of,  121,  128, 
181-183,  186-188,  191-195,  197, 
200,  213,  218,  257,  261,  274,  287. 

Felton,  C.  C.,79. 

Fichte,  death  of,  291. 

Field,  Cyrus,  accompanies  Taylor  to 
Iceland,  207. 

Fields,  James  T.,  described  in  "The 
Tent  on  the  Beach,"  55 ;  meets 
Taylor  in  Boston,  56  ;  correspond 
ence  with  Taylor,  G8,  85,  89, 100, 
102  ;  experience  in  lecturing,  101 ; 
entertains  Taylor,  192,  244. 

Finlay,  the  historian  of  Greece, 
115; 

Fiske,  Willard,  196,  278. 

Fitzpatrick,  the  highwayman,  origi 
nal  of  Sandy  Flash  in  "  The  Story 
of  Kennett,"  108-169. 

Florence,  Taylor's  first  visit  to, 
43-45;  Taylor's  illness  in,  189; 
203,  253. 

•'Forester,  Fanny,"  31. 

Foster,  F.  E.,  partner  of  Taylor  in 
the  publication  of  the  "  Phceuix- 
ville  Gazette,"  56. 

Franconian  Mountains,  excursion  to 
the,  145. 

Frankfurt,  37,  42,  202. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  1,  2. 

Freiligrath,  F.,  44. 

Frere,  Hookham,  his  use  of  Ottava 
rima,  229. 

Freytag,  Gustav,  143. 

"  Friend  Eli's  Daughter,"  146. 

Frommann,  Fraulein,  201. 

Fry,  William  H.,  142. 

Fuller,  Margaret,  drowned  in  the 
wreck  of  the  Elizabeth,  79,  80. 

Furness,  Dr.  Horace  Howard,  128. 

Furness,  Dr.  William  H.,  assists 
Taylor  in  his  translation  of 
"Faust,"  128;  translates  a  Ger 
man  poem  by  Taylor,  130,  131  ; 
delivers  a  funeral  address  at  Ce- 
darcroft,  294. 

Futhey,  John  Smith,  23. 

Gall,  theories  of,  19. 
Gallatin,  Albert,  1. 
Gardette,  Charles  I.,  137. 


Garibaldi  refuses  to  see  Taylor,  191. 

Garrison,  W.  L.,  124,  144. 

Gause,  Jonathan,  Taylor's  teacher 
at  Unionville,  22,  23. 

Gay,  Sydney  Howard,  142. 

Geneva,  1. 

"  Gentleman's  Magazine,"  30. 

German,  Taylor's  knowledge  of, 
183-187. 

Germany,  school  history  of,  203,  205, 
206. 

Gerstacker,  F.,  51. 

Gerviuus,  Georg,  40. 

"  Gettysburg  Ode,"  191,  239. 

Gibbon,  Edward,  16. 

Gifford,  S.  R.,  227. 

Gleichen-Russwurm,  Baron  von,  201. 

Glyndon,  Howard.  See  Redden, 
Laura. 

"Godey's  Lady's  Book,"  4. 

Godwin,  Parke,  142. 

Goethe,  writes  a  poem  on  Pennsyl 
vania,  5, 6  ;  death  in  1832, 16, 258 ; 
read  by  Taylor  in  the  East,  98  ; 
allusions  to  "Faust,"  188,  193, 
257;  Taylor's  lecture  on,  195; 
Preller  a  protect*  of,  201  ;  last 
birthday  of,  200;  biography  of, 
199,  200,  202,  205,  207,  209,  224, 
230,  247,  250,  265,  274,  277-279, 
291-293 ;  poem  to,  239,  240. 

"Goethe,  An,"  186. 

"Golden  Legend,  The,"  "Picture 
of  St.  John  "  compared  to,  229. 

Gortchakoff,  Prince,  146,  283;  in 
terview  with  Taylor  concerning 
the  Civil  War  in  America,  148- 
152. 

Gotha,  107,  109,  111,  112,  115,  145, 
146,  152,  153,  187-189,  199,  200, 
203,  249,  254,  270. 

Gottingen,  40. 

Grace,  Robert,  2. 

Graham,  George  R.,  36,  62,  68. 

Graham,  James  Lorimer,  146,  188, 
244. 

"  Graham's  Magazine,"  4  ;  Taylor's 
first  poem  published  in,  21  note; 
how  founded,  30  ;  contributors  to, 
31 ;  finances  of,  68. 

Grant,  General,  64  ;  his  visit  to  Ber 
lin,  290. 

Greece,  Taylor's  visit  to,  112-115. 

Greek,  Taylor's  knowledge  of,  113, 
114,  182. 

Greeley,  Horace,  patron  of  Taylor, 
38,  52,  53  note;  dissuades  Taylor 
from  coming  to  New  York,  59; 
employs  him  on  the  "Tribune," 


INDEX. 


313 


67 ;  assists  Thoreau,  74 ;  sells 
Taylor  a  share  in  the  "  Tribune," 
85,  142 ;  visits  Cedarcrott.  133  ; 
death  of,  199. 

Green,  Miss,  her  school  of  belles- 
lettres,  59. 

Greenwood,  Grace,  31,  103. 

Gregor,  Pastor,  5,  11. 

Griswold,  R.  W.,  1,  30-32,  59,  75. 

Gustav-Adolf  Verein,  201. 

Gutzkow,  107. 

Hale,  Mrs.  S.  J.,  51. 

Hatevy,  opera  "  Le  Val  d'Andorre," 
188. 

Hall,  Mrs.  S.  C.,  39. 

Hall,  Fitzedward,  92. 

Halleck,  Fitz-Greene,  63,  65,  191, 
192. 

Halstead,  Murat,  207. 

Hammer,  Julius,  translates  "  Stey- 
ermark,"  107. 

"Hannah  Thurston,"  125;  when 
published,  155;  description  of, 
155-162;  how  written,  1G3,  173, 
227. 

Hansen,  Marie,  Taylor's  first  ac 
quaintance  with,  111  ;  marriage 
to,  112. 

Harbaugh,  Henry,  5. 

Harlan,  Caleb,  6  note. 

Harrison,  Frederick,  194. 

Hart,  Professor  James  Morgan,  Tay 
lor's  correspondence  with,  63,  187, 
200,  201,  279. 

Harte,  Bret,  248. 

Hartman,  Dr.  W.  D.,  19,  20. 

Harvard  College,  79,  219. 

Hasheesh  debauch,  a,  94. 

"  Hassan  to  his  Mare,"  218,  221. 

"Haunted  Shanty,  The,"  a  story, 
145. 

Hawks,  F.  L.  93. 

Hawley,  General,  invites  Taylor  to 
write  the  hymn  for  the  Centennial 
Exhibition,  240. 

Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  4,  16,  31. 

Hay,  Col.  John,  142. 

Hayes,  Dr.  Isaac,  23,  207. 

Hayes,  President  R.  B.,  appoints 
Taylor  minister  to  Germany,  279. 

Hazeldell  Farm,  15. 

"  Hearth  and  Home,"  started  by  D. 
G.  Mitchell,  122. 

Hebel,  article  on,  145. 

Hedge,  Dr.,  257. 

Jegel,  death  of,  291. 

Heidelberg,  40. 

Helmholtz,  Professor,  283. 


Hemans,  Mrs.,  33. 

Herder,  Taylor's  studies  in,  29,  196, 
201. 

Hewett,  Professor  W.  T.,  196,  244, 
291. 

"  Hiawatha,"  origin  of,  217. 

Hicks's  painting  of  Taylor,  88. 

Himalayas,  91. 

Hirzel,  his  Goethe  library,  207. 

Hoffman,  Charles  Fenno,  31,  59,  64, 
65,  160. 

"  Holly  Tree,  The,"  238. 

Holmes,  O.  W.,  1,  101,  136,  193,  241. 

"  Home  Journal,  The,"  141. 

"  Home  Pastorals,"  72,  121  ;  de 
scribed,  238-239. 

Hong  Kong,  92,  93. 

Hope  Park,  Taylor  a  guest  at,  207. 

Hopkinson,  Francis,  2. 

Hopkinson,  Joseph,  3. 

Hoppin,  W.  J.,  141. 

House,  Edward  H.,  142. 

Howells,  William  D.,  quoted,  113 ; 
account  of  a  visit  to  Pfaff's,  138, 
139;  congratulates  Taylor  upon 
his  "  Faust,"  193  ;  letters  to,  203- 
206,  221,  280  ;  account  of  Taylor's 
departure  to  Germany,  282. 

Howitt,  Mary,  51,  91. 

Howitt,  William,  34. 

Hugo,  Victor,  reviewed  by  Taylor, 
163;  Les  Orientales,  221,  222; 
midnight  supper  with,  283. 

Humboldt,  95;  praises  Taylor,  97, 
98 ;  lecture  upon,  195 ;  essay  upon, 
197. 

Hunt,  Leigh,  Taylor  calls  upon,  109, 
136. 

"Hylas,"217. 

"  Hyperion,"  34. 

"Icarus,"   how  it  was   composed, 

163. 
Iceland,  millennial  celebration,  207, 

208  ;  Taylor  called  "  a  skald,"  211. 
Idlewild,  64,  80. 
Immortality,  Taylor's  belief  in,  113, 

256. 

"  Implora  Pace,"  266,  267. 
Improvisation,  Taylor's  powers  of, 

244,  245. 

"  Independent"  (N.  Y.),  145,  197. 
Ingram,  Morris,  30. 
"  In  My  Vineyard,"  quoted,  126. 
"  International  Review,"  275. 
"  Ion  of  Iceland,"  274. 
"  Iris,"  263. 
Irving,    Rev.    Edward,   original  of 

"The  Prophet, "250. 


314 


INDEX. 


Irving,  Washington,  4,  31,  63,  64, 
116,  136,  141 ;  his  parentage,  208. 

Ischia,  a  trip  to,  190. 

Italy,  43-45;  ways  of  living  in, 
276. 

Ithaca  (Greece),  112. 

Ithaca  (N.  Y.),  195. 

Jackson,  "  Stonewall,"  22. 

James,  G.  P.  R.,  101. 

James,  Henry,  Jr.,  253. 

"  Jane  Reed,"  238. 

Japan,  Perry's  Expedition  to,  92. 

Jochumssohn,  Mathias,  translates 
Taylor's  "America  to  Iceland," 
208. 

"John  Godfrey's  Fortunes,"  24,  25, 
65-67  ;  when  published,  162 ;  de 
scription  of,  163-165 ;  180. 

"  John  Reed,"  27,  238. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  Sonnet  to,  154. 

Johnson,  Eastman,  227. 

Johnson,  Oliver,  67,  124. 

"Joseph  and  His  Friend,"  20,  121, 
177. 

"Journey  to  Central  Africa,"  pub 
lished,  103,  104  ;  dedicated  to  A. 
Bufleb,  111. 

"Jubel-lied  eines  Amerikaners," 
183,  184. 

Kalopothakes,  Dr.,  Taylor  enter 
tained  by,  114. 

Kautokeino,  108. 

Kean,  Edmund,  147. 

Keats,  John,  70;  his  knowledge  of 
Greek,  113  ;  parodied,  248. 

Keene,  Mr.  ("  H.  G.  K."),  92. 

Kemble,  Gouverneur,  141. 

Kennett  Square,  12,  15,  16,  21,  22, 
35-37,  42,  62,  78,  80,  81,  84,  105  ; 
116,  119,  123-125,  127,  168-170, 
197,  198,  235,  236,  279,  294,  295. 

Kensett,  John  F.,  141,  227. 

Kenyon,  John,  86. 

Keyser's  "Religion  of  the  North 
men,"  37. 

Khartoum,  90. 

King,  Starr,  124. 

Kirkland,  Mrs.,  67,  74. 

Klopstock,  195,  212. 

"  Knickerbocker  Magazine,"  31,  64, 
136. 

Knickerbocker  School,  The,  61,  63- 
65,  136. 

Knight,  Joseph,  praises  "  Picture  of 
St.  John,"  229. 

Kossuth,  141. 

Kotzebue,  130  note,  183. 


Koumiss,  an  experiment  with.  147. 

"  Kubleh,"  218. 
Kyffhauser,  189. 

Ladoga,  A  Cruise  on  Lake,  147. 

Lamb,  Charles,  217. 

Lancaster  (county),  6,  12,  125. 

Landor,  Walter  Savage,  91,  217. 

"  Lands  of  the  Saracen,"  94 ;  pub 
lished,  103,  104. 

Lanier,  Sidney,  241,  260,  277. 

"  Lantern,  The,"  137. 

Lapland,  Taylor  makes  a  tour  of, 
107,  108. 

"  Lars,"  dedication  of,  56  ;  English 
edition  of,  206 ;  scene  of  the  inci 
dents  of,  210  ;  description  of,  234- 
236 ;  218,  219,  268. 

"  Last  Walk  in  Autumn,  The " 
(quoted),  55. 

Latakia  (tobacco)  grown  at  Cedar- 
croft,  123. 

Lausanne,  107,  187,  188,  202,  203. 

Lear,  Edward  (Book  of  Nonsense), 
246. 

Lectures,  lyceum  system  of,  100- 
103. 

Leidy,  Joseph,  28. 

Leland,  Charles  Godfrey,  10. 

Lenau,  Nicolaus,  6  note. 

Lepsius,  231,  283. 

Leslie,  Eliza,  51. 

Leasing,  196. 

Leucadia,  112. 

Lewis,  Anne  Estelle,  165. 

"  Library  of  Travel,"  197. 

"Life  and  Letters  of  Bayard  Tay 
lor,"  112. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  gratified  at  Tay 
lor's  course  in  Russia,  152,  153 ; 
address  at  Gettysburg,  239. 

Lind,  Jenny,  83,  83. 

Lindenshade,  home  of  Dr.  H.  H. 
Furness,  128-130. 

Linnaeus,  14. 

"  Literary  World,"  65. 

Little  Leigh  (Cheshire),  12. 

Locke,  Richard  Adams,  45. 

Lockhart,  J.  G.,  47. 

Logan,  James,  2. 

London,  39,  46,  47. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  21, 
30,  126,  192,  193,  259,  271  ;  Taylor 
presents  "Ximena"  to,  32,  213; 
his  praise  of  "  Views  Afoot,"  51 ; 
Taylor  presented  to,  56  ;  a  night 
with,  74 ;  verses  on  the  death  of 
Taylor,  87,  295 ;  criticism  of  "  Pic 
ture  of  St.  John,"  229;  criticism 


INDEX. 


315 


of  the  "  Masque  of  the  Gods,"  233 ; 
declines  the  National  Ode,  241 ; 
parodied  by  Taylor,  248. 

Longwood,  yearly  meeting  at,  124 : 
Taylor's  burial  at,  295. 

"  Lost  Crown,  The,"  262,  268. 

"  Love  at  a  Hotel,"  a  play  at  Cedar- 
croft,  132. 

Lowell  Institute  lectures,  278. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  editorial 
writer  on  "Graham's  Magazine," 
4;  Taylor's  early  admiration  for, 
21 ;  "  Ximena  "  presented  to,  32  ; 
an  evening  with,  74  ;  takes  Taylor 
to  see  Whittier,  79  ;  editor-in-chief 
of  "  Atlantic  Monthly,"  136  ;  ap 
preciates  "  Picture  of  St.  John," 
229;  his  "Commemoration  Ode," 
242  ;  "  The  Cathedral,"  243  ;  the 
humor  of,  243  ;  in  Florence  with, 
253 ;  criticism  of  David  Masson, 
273  ;  193,  213,  223,  241,  271. 

Liiders,  Charles  Henry,  269. 

Ludlow,  Fitz-Hugh,  137. 

Luther,  Martin,  Freytag  on.  143. 

Lyons,  46. 

Macao,  Camoens  writes  "The  Lu- 
siad  "  at,  93. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  23;  reading  Vol 
taire,  93 ;  death  of,  136. 

Macdonald,  George,  21. 

Magnusson,  Professor,  207,  208. 

Mammoth  Cave,  a  visit  to  the,  105. 

Mariette  Bey,  206. 

Marseilles,  45. 

Marshall,  Humphrey,  28. 

Martin,  Samuel,  a  teacher  of  Bayard 
Taylor,  18. 

Martineau,  Harriet,  144. 

"  Masque  of  the  Gods,  The,"  231  ; 
description  of,  232,  233:  ethical 
thoughts  of,  255. 

Masson,  David,  273. 

Mattapoisett,  274,  278. 

Maury,  Lieutenant,  105. 

Mavrocordatos,  friend  of  Lord  By 
ron,  115. 

Mazzini,  91. 

McEntee,  Jervis,  227. 

Mehemet  Ali  Pasha,  283. 

Mellen,  Grenville,  217. 

Mendelssohn,  44. 

Mendenhall,  the  family  of,  11,  14 ; 
name  in  "  Lars,"  236. 

Mennonites,  The,  5,  12. 

"  Mercury,  New  York,"  116. 

Mesmer,  19. 

Metaphysics,  257. 


Midnight  Sun,  The,  110. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  231. 

Milnes,  Monckton,  221. 

Milton,  a  lock  of  his  hair,  109 ;  Mas- 
son's  Life  of,  273. 

Miner,  Charles,  editor  of  "  Village 
Record,"  (West  Chester),  29. 

Missolonghi,  112,  115. 

Mitchell,  D.  G.,  122. 

Mitford,  Mary  Russell,  91. 

"  Modern  Chivalry,"  6. 

Mommsen,  Theodor,  283. 

Monaghan,  Hon.  R.  E.,  23. 

"  Mon-da-min,"  217. 

Montaigne,  231. 

"  Monterey,"  a  favorite  with  Gen 
eral  Grant,  64. 

Montserrat,  a  visit  to,  188. 

Moore,  Thomas,  33,  65,  219,  221, 
224. 

Mormonism,  250. 

Morris,  Gen.  George  P. ,  62  note ; 
his  summer  home,  64  ;  connection 
with  "  The  Home  Journal,"  141. 

Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  141. 

Mott,  Lucretia,  124. 

Moultrie,  John,  229. 

Mount  Cuba,  scene  of  some  of  the 
incidents  in  "  Lars,"  209,  235. 

"  Mrs.  Grundy,"  published  in  New 
York,  137. 

Muhlenberg,  Gotthilf,  28. 

Miiller,  Max,  282. 

Miiller,  Otfried,  115. 

Murray,  John,  45,  47. 

Mycenae,  113. 

"  My  Prologue,"  (quoted),  254,  255. 

"  Nameless  Bard,  The,"  27. 

Naples,  190. 

Napoleon,  Louis,  182. 

"  National  Era,  The,"  53,  54. 

National  Ode,  The,  234,  described, 
240-242  ;  literary  quality  of,  261. 

Newfoundland,  laying  the  submarine 
telegraph,  105,  111. 

Newtown  Square,  170. 

New  York,  4,  8, 9,  37,  38,  58,  59,  61- 
68, 81,  84,  106,  184 ;  Bohemianism 
in,  135-140. 

Nijni  Novgorod,  123, 147. 

Nile,  The,  87. 

"  Nilotic  Drinking  Song  "  (quoted). 
86. 

"  Norseman's  Ride,  The,"  53. 

North,  William,  138. 

"Northern  Travel,"  when  pub 
lished,  108,  112  ;  quoted,  109. 

"Notus  Ignoto,"  182,  191. 


316 


INDEX. 


"Oberon,"  Wieland's  poem  of,  23, 

229. 
O'Brien,  Fitz-James,   136-140  ;  165, 

245. 
u  Old  Pennsylvania  Farmer,  The," 

238. 

"  Orso's  Vendetta,"  234. 
Osgood,  Frances  S.,  31. 
Osgood,  James  R.,  193,  253. 
Ossoli,  Marquis  D',  80. 
Ottava  rima,  "  Picture  of  St.  John" 

written  in,  229. 
Oxford  (Pennsylvania),  22. 

"  Palm  and  the  Pine,  The  "  (quoted), 
13. 

"Parnassus  in  Pillory"  (quoted), 
62. 

"  Pastorals,  Pennsylvania,"  237, 238, 
295. 

Paulding,  James  K.,  31,  64. 

Peabody  Institute,  Taylor  lectures 
before  the,  276. 

Peabody,  George,  91. 

"  Pencillings  by  the  Way  "  (Willis), 
34. 

Penn,  William,  3,  12,  14, 15. 

Pennock,  Barclay,  37. 

Pennsylvania,  literature  in,  1-10 ; 
nationalities  in,  4-7  ;  University 
of,  19  ;  how  Taylor  was  treated  by, 
127. 

Pennsylvania  Dutch,  5. 

"  Pennsylvania  Freeman,  The,"  4. 

Penn  Yan,  Taylor  lectures  in,  102. 

Pennypacker,  Dr.  I.  A.,  56. 

Perry,  Commodore,  his  expedition 
to  Japan,  92. 

Persia,  proposed  mission  to,  153. 

Petermann,  Dr.,  commends  Taylor's 
travels,  98. 

"  Peter  Parley,"  16. 

Peterson,  Henry,  68. 

Pfaff's  beer  cellar,  138, 139,  141. 

"  Phantom,  The,"  224. 

Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society,  Taylor 
elected  an  honorary  member,  79. 

Philadelphia,  19,  22,  35,  48,  63 ;  the 
capital  of  American  literature, 
1-4 ;  libraries  in,  2 ;  press  in,  3, 
4  ;  prestige  of,  8,  9,  61 ;  Central 
High  School  of,  37  ;  mob  rule  in, 
144. 

Phillips,  J.  B.,  correspondence  with, 
21,  35,  127,  174,  178,  231,  246. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  124. 

Pl.oenixville,  53,  56-59,  61. 

Piatti  makes  a  bust  of  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  89. 


"Picture  of  St.  John, The,"  18,21, 
178,  216,  234,  261  ;  description  of, 
226-230. 

Pike,  Albert,  31. 

Pike,  James  S.,  142. 

"  Pioneer"  (Phoenixville),  56-59. 

Pittsburgh,  Taylor's  favorite  city 
to  lecture  in,  104. 

Placeutia,  home  of  J.  K.  Paulding, 
64. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  editorial  writer 
upon  "  Graham's  Magazine,"  4, 
30  ;  praises  Taylor's  poem,"  The 
Continents,"  71  ;  names  E.  A. 
Lewis  "rival  of  Sappho,"  165; 
his  criticism  of  Tennyson,  213 ; 
approvingly  criticises  Taylor's 
"Rhymes  of  Travel,"  216;  Dr. 
Chivers's  imitations  of,  248. 

"  Poems  of  Home  and  Travel,"  pub 
lication  of,  106,  224. 

"  Poems  of  the  Orient,"  88, 99  ;  pub 
lication  of  the,  103 ;  180,  218,  219, 
221. 

"  Porphyrogenitus,"  268. 

"  Port  Folio,  The,"  3,  8,  9,  61. 

"  Poet's  Journal,  The,"  written  at 
Cedarcroft,  121  ;  description  of, 
225,  226. 

Powers,  Hiram,  45,  259. 

Powers,  Dr.  H.  N.,294. 

Preller,  a  protege"  of  Goethe,  202. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  136. 

Press  Club  (N.  Y.),  its  origin,  141, 
142. 

"  Prince  Deukalion,"  219,  232,  249 ; 
description  of,  256-259 ;  comple 
tion  of,  278  ;  verses  from,  295. 

"  Prince  of  Parthia,  The,"  3. 

"  Prophet,  The,"  203.  219,  232  ;  de 
scription  of,  249-254. 

"  Protestantenbibel,"  231. 

"Ptolemy,"  the  scene  of  "  Hannah 
Thurston,"  155. 

"  Puritan  and  his  Daughter,  The," 
64. 

Pusey  Farm,  purchase  of  the,  105. 

Putnam,  George  P.,  47,  82,  116. 

"  Putnam's  Magazine,"  136. 

Quaker  ancestry,  influence  of,  179. 

"  Quaker  Widow,  The,"  166,  238. 

Quakers,  the  virtues  of,  7  ;  attitude 
toward  art,  8;  Bayard  Taylor 
brought  up  in  Quaker  faith,  14  ; 
the  "  inward  light  "  of  the,  19  ; 
sentiments  of  the,  124  ;  stagnation 
of  Quakerism,  127  ;  Quaker  com 
munity  in  Norway,  234. 


INDEX. 


317 


Rafn,  Professor,  110. 

Raymond,  Henry  J.,  142. 

Read,  T.  Buchanan,  birth  of,  10 ;  in 
stinct  for  art,  19  ;  his  first  novel, 
33  note;  friendship  for  Taylor, 
72 ;  introduces  Taylor  to  Leigh 
Hunt,  109  ;  in  Rome,  190 ;  paro 
died,  248. 

Redden,  Laura  (Howard  Glyndon), 
a  guest  at  Cedarcroft,  123. 

Reed,  Henry,  9  note. 

Reid,  Whitelaw,  excursion  to  Lake 
Winnipeg,  197;  sends  Taylor  to 
Iceland,  207  ;  suggests  the  "  Echo 
Club"  to  Taylor,  248;  suggests 
"  Life  and  Habits  Abroad,"  276. 

Reikiavik,  208. 

Reindeer  travel,  108. 

Restaurant,  etymology  of,  244. 

*' Return  of  the  Goddess,  The" 
(quoted),  118. 

Reuter,  Fritz,  115. 

"  Rhymes  of  Travel,"  85,  "216, 

Richardson,  A.  D.,  142. 

Richter,  J.  P.,  195. 

Ripley,  George,  82,  142,  192,  275, 

«'  Roof  of  the  World,  The,"  109, 

Rossetti,  D.  G.,  248. 

Royce,  Josiah,  77  note. 

Ruckert,  read  by  Taylor  in  the 
East,  98  ;  Taylor's  last  visit  to, 
153  ;  Oriental  poems  of,  222. 

Russia,  friendliness  to  the  United 
States  149-151,  153. 

"  Russia  and  her  People,"  a  lec 
ture,  161. 

Salis,  Herr  von,  201, 

Sand,  George,  275, 

Sands,  R.  C.,  217. 

Sartain,  John,  19. 

"  Saturday  Evening  Post,  The."  20, 
25,  30,  35,  50,  68. 

41  Saturday  Press,  The,"  136-138. 

Saxe-Coburg  Gotha,  Duke  of,  153. 

Schiller,  195,  199-202,  207,  209,  2G5, 
274,  278,  279. 

Schlosser,  Professor,  40. 

Scholl,  librarian  at  Weimar,  201. 

Schoolcraft,  217. 

Scollard,  Clinton,  269. 

Scotch-Irish  in  Pennsylvania,  6. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  2,  9,  16,  33,  121. 

Seward,  W.  H.,  dispatch  from  St. 
Petersburg  to,  148-151,  152;  in 
trigues  against  Taylor,  153 ;  son 
net  to,  154. 

Shakespeare,  3,  65,  120;  Ward's 
statue  of,  239. 


Shanly,  €harles  Dawson,  137,  138. 

Shapinshay,  home  of  Washington 
Irving^s  father,  208. 

"  Shekh  Ahnaf 's  Letters  from  Bagh 
dad,"  221. 

Shelley,  P.  B.,  3,  70;  translation 
of  '"'Faust,"  193,  194;  Taylor 
charged  with,  262. 

"Shelley,  Ode  to,"  70-72. 

Shepherd,  N.  G.,  137,  138. 

Sherman,  F,  D.,  269. 
j  Shftlooks,  country  of  the,  87. 
!  Sigourney,  Lydia  Huntley,  248. 
,  Silliman,  Professor,  105. 

"  Sketch  Club,"  the  predecessor  of 
the -"Century,"  141,  281. 

Sladen,  Douglas,  81. 

Smalley,  George  W.,  142. 

Smith,  etymology  of,  244. 

Smith,  Goldwin,  196. 

Smith,  Mrs.  Seba,  65. 

Smith,  Sydney,  257. 

"  Soldier  and  the  Pard,  The,"  218. 

"  Soliloquy  of  a  Young  Poet,"  20. 

"  Song  of  the  Camp,  The,"  268. 

"  Sordello"  (quoted),  43. 

Southey,  Robert,  1,  8,  219,  221. 

"Sparkling  and  Bright,"  64;  par 
ody  of,  160. 

"  Spectator,"  its  review  of  "  Han 
nah  Thurston,"  161. 

Spurzheim,  19. 

Stedman,  E.  C.,  description  of  Tay 
lor  in  1851,  88  ;  sonnet  to,  133, 134 ; 
contributor  to  "  The  Saturday 
Press,"  137  ;  letters  to,  188,  264; 
chosen  by  the  Centennial  Com 
mission  to  write  the  "  Hymn," 
240 ;  speaks  at  Taylor's  funeral, 
294 ;  writes  a  commemorative 
poem,  296. 

Stein,  Baron  von,  201. 

Stephen,  Fitz-James,  164. 

Stichling,  Staatsrath,  201. 

Stoddard,  R.  H.,  origin  of  his  ac 
quaintance  with  Taylor,  69-71  ; 
living  in  Brooklyn,  116;  writes 
a  play  for  the  Cedarcroft  house- 
warming,  132,  133  ;  reminiscences 
of  Taylor,  140  ;  writes  a  poem  for 
the  golden  wedding  of  Taylor's 
parents,  191  ;  receives  the  MS. 
book  of  the  "  Poems  of  the 
Orient,"  219;  makes  nonsense 
rhymes,  245  ;  estimate  of  Taylor's 
poetry,  267  ;  writes  a  commemo 
rative  poem,  296;  letter  from 
Taylor  to,  102. 

"  Story  of  Kennett,  The,"  17,  18, 


318 


INDEX. 


22,  121 ;  description  of,  168-177 ; 
178,  227. 

"  Strange  Friend,  The,"  166. 

Street,  Alfred  B.,  31. 

Sullivan,  Hon.  A.  S.,  294. 

Sumner,  Charles,  80. 

Sumner,  Horace,  80. 

"  Sunday  Courier,  The,"  75. 

"  Sunshine  of  the  Gods,  The,"  Swin 
burne's  criticism  on,  215. 

Susquehanna  River,  2,  5,  6, 167. 

Susquehanna,  on  board  the,  92,  93. 

Swinburne,  A.  C.,  215,  248. 

Symonds,  W.  L.,  137. 

Talleyrand,  244. 

Tarrytown,  64. 

Tasso,  translated  by  Wiffin,  193. 

TAYLOR,  BAYARD  :  born  at  Kennett 
Square,  12 ;  German  ancestry, 
12,  13 ;  Quaker  faith,  14 ;  school 
ing,  17,  18  ;  instinct  for  art,  19  ; 
love  of  travel,  21;  at  school  in 
Unionville,  22 ;  apprenticed  to  a 
printer,  28  ;  description  of  Taylor 
at  seventeen,  29;  acquaintance 
with  Griswold,  30 ;  publishes 
"  Ximena,"  31-35  ;  goes  to  Eu 
rope,  37-39;  life  in  Frankfurt, 
40-42;  distress  in  France  and 
England,  45-47  ;  publishes tl  Views 
Afoot,"  50,  51 ;  acquaintance  with 
Whittier,  53-56;  life  at  Phoenix- 
ville,  56-58 ;  removes  to  New 
York,  59  ;  Knickerbocker  school, 
63-65 ;  employed  by  Greeley,  67  ; 
acquaintance  with  R.  H.  Stod- 
dard,  69  ;  description  of  Taylor  in 
early  manhood,  70;  his  friend 
ships,  71-73 ;  Astor  Place  riots, 
75;  goes  to  California,  75-79; 
wreck  of  the  Elizabeth,  79,80; 
competes  for  a  prize  for  a  song  for 
Jenny  Lind,  82  ;  marriage,  84 ; 
death  of  Mary  Agnew,  84 ;  visits 
the  East,  85-90;  Stedman's  de 
scription  of,  88  ;  in  India,  91,  92  ; 
with  Perry  in  Japan,  92, 93  ;  books 
of  travel,  94,  96,  98 ;  lyceum  lec 
tures,  100-103  ;  purchase  of  prop 
erty  near  Kennett  Square,  105 ; 
northern  travel,  108,  109 ;  married 
to  Marie  Hansen,  111  ;  visit  to 
Greece,  112;  study  of  Greek, 
113,  114;  builds  Cedarcroft,  116  ; 
description  of  Cedarcroft,  120- 
122  ;  abolition  and  temperance  the 
two  interests  of  Chester  County, 
124-127 ;  visits  Dr.  Horace  Howard 


Furness,  128-131 ;  a  play  at  Cedar- 
croft,  132;  Bohemianism  in  New 
York,  135-140 ;  joins  the  Century 
Association,  141 ;  relations  with 
the  "Tribune"  set,  142;  accom 
panies  Cameron  to  Russia,  146; 
sends  dispatch  to  W.  H.  Seward, 
148-151  ;  publishes  his  first  novel, 
155 ;  "  John  Godfrey's  Fortunes," 
163  ;  "  The  Story  of  Kennett," 
167-177 ;  translates  "  Faust," 
181  ;  scholarship  of,  181,  182  ;  his 
knowledge  of  German,  183-186; 
visits  out-of-the-way  places  of 
Europe,  188  ;  illness  in  Florence, 
189  ;  Gettysburg  Ode,  191  ;  pub 
lishes  translation  of  "  Faust," 
193;  leases  Cedarcroft,  199; 
studies  in  Goethe,  200;  German 
acquaintances,  201 ;  financial  em 
barrassment,  203,  205  ;  sources  of 
History  of  Germany,  206  ;  letters 
from  Egypt,  207 ;  reports  the 
millennial  anniversary  of  Iceland 
for  the  "Tribune,"  207,  208; 
visits  Tennyson,  214,  215  ;  Swin 
burne's  criticism  of, 215  ;  "Poems 
of  the  Orient,"  218-224 ;  "  Pic 
ture  of  St.  John,"  227-230;  his 
reading,  231 ;  '•  Masque  of  the 
Gods," 232, 233  ;  "Lars,"  234-236; 
hexameter  verse,  237,  238  ;  Odes, 
238-242 ;  his  patriotism,  242,  243 ; 
genius  for  parody,  244,  248  ;  im 
provisation,  244,  245;  "Echo 
Club,"  247;  "The  Prophet," 
249-255;  "Prince  Deukalion," 
258,  259  ;  literary  growth  of,  260, 
261  ;  qualities  of  the  poetry  of, 
261,  262,  267,  268 ;  last  poem  of, 
269,  270  ;  compared  with  his  con 
temporaries,  271,  272 ;  begins 
daily  work  on  "Tribune,"  275, 
276  ;  failure  of  vitality,  277  ;  ap 
pointed  minister  to  Germany,  279 ; 
reception  in  Germany,  283 ;  H.  8. 
Everett's  memories  of,  264-289 ; 
fatalism,  291 ;  death,  293 ;  funeral 
ceremonies  at  Cedarcroft,  294  ;  at 
Longwood,  295;  commemorative 
poems,  295-298. 

Taylor,  Dr.  Franklin,  37,  40,  294. 

Tegn6r,  53. 

Temperance,  in  Chester  County, 
123-126  ;  satirized  by  Bayard  Tay 
lor,  159,  160. 

Temptation  of  Hassan  Ben  Kha- 
led,"  219. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  16;  induced  by 


INDEX. 


319 


Taylor's  "  Northern  Travel  "  to 
visit  Norway,  98  ;  Thackeray  intro 
duces  Bayard  Taylor  to,  109  ;  au 
tograph  of,  122  ;  his  "  Princess," 
158,  161  ;  Foe's  criticism  on,  213 ; 
Taylor's  visit  to,  214;  231,  234, 
235,  248  ;  influence  upon  Bayard 
Taylor,  263. 
<(  Tent  on  the  Beach,  The"  (quoted), 

Thackeray,  W.  M.,  64,  109,  122. 

Thomas,  Theodore,  240. 

Thompson,  Rev.  J.  P.,  293. 

Thompson,  Launt,  295. 

Thoreau,  H.  D.,  74,  80. 

Tiryns,  113. 

Titian,  the  mark  of,  233. 

Toughkenamon,  18,  168; 

"Travels  in  Greece  and  Russia," 
116. 

Treckshuyt,  40. 

"  Tribune  "  (N.  Y.),  Greeley  en 
gages  Taylor  to  write  for  the,  38, 
50 ;  he  reports  Astor  Place  riots, 
75;  becomes  a  share-holder,  78, 
85;  George  Ripley  his  fellow- 
editor,  82 ;  Taylor  ordered  to  ac 
company  Perry  to  Japan,  92  ;  pop 
ularity  of  his  letters,  100 ;  repre 
sentative  of,  105  ;  "  Alongshore  " 
letters  to,  124  ;  Taylor's  associates 
on  the,  142 ;  war  correspondent, 
146;  sketch  of  Louis  Napoleon 
for  the,  182 ;  reports  the  Vienna 
Exposition  for  the,  183  ;  building 
enterprise,  199  ;  Taylor  reports  the 
millennial  celebration  at  Iceland 
for  the,  207  ;  "  Echo  Club  "  origi 
nally  intended  for,  248;  Taylor 
describes  the  Bunker  Hill  celebra 
tion  for  the,  274  ;  number  of  Tay 
lor's  contributions  to,  276;  104, 
143,  145,  187,  192,  197,  203,  205, 
206,  209,  275,  277,  278. 

Trippel's  bust  of  Goethe,  202. 

Trollope,  Mrs.,  45. 

Tuckerman,  Henry  T. ,  141. 

Tuesday  Club,  The,  3. 

"  Two  Greetings,  The,"  234. 

"  Two  Homes,  The,"  234. 

Uhland,  266. 

Underground  Railway,  The,  123, 
124. 

"  Union  League,  The  "  (of  Philadel 
phia),  banquet  at,  281. 

"Union  Magazine,  The,"  67-74. 

Unionville,  21-24,  27,  170,  171. 

"United  States  Gazette,"  36,  50. 


University  of  Jena,  three  hundredth 

anniversary  of,  115. 
University  of  Pennsylvania,  19. 
"Urlsperger  Nachrichten,"  4. 

"  Vanity  Fair,"  137,  139. 

Venus  of  Milo,  202. 

Verplanck,  G.  C.,  65,  141. 

Vienna  Exposition,  reported  by  Bay 
ard  Taylor,  183,  203. 

"Views  Afoot,"  29,  35,  50-52,  56, 
62,  revised,  106,  178,  192,  285. 

"  Village  Record,"  28,  29. 

"  Village  Stork,  The,"  270,  271. 

Virginia,  University  of,  National 
convention  at  the,  210. 

"  Visit  to  India,  China,  and  Japan," 
published,  106. 

Voltaire,  93. 

Wallingford,  home  of  Dr.  H.  H. 
Furaess,  128. 

Ward,  J.  Q.  A.,  statue  of  Shake 
speare,  239. 

Ward,  Plumer,  169. 

"Waring,"  Taylor  compared  to 
Browning's,  100. 

Warwickshire,  7. 

"  Waves,  The,"  262. 

Way,  Rebecca,  mother  of  Bayard 
Taylor,  13,  14. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  170  note. 

Webster,  Daniel,  74. 

Weimar,  200,  201,  202,  204,  209, 
250. 

Weltgemiithlichkeit,  a  word  coined 
by  Bayard  Taylor,  183. 

West,  Benjamin,  170. 

West  Chester  (N.  Y.),  124. 

West  Chester  (Penn.),  19, 20,  28,  29, 
32,  125,  281. 

"  West  Chester  Register,  The,"  23. 

"  Westostlicher  Divan,"  202. 

Whipple,  E.  P.,  56,  280. 

White,  Hon.  A.  D.,  289. 

Whitman, Walt,  138,  248,  260,  275. 

Whittier,  J.  G.,  edits  "  The  Penn 
sylvania  Freeman,"  4  ;  his  Quaker 
sentiment,  8,  193 ;  acquaintance 
with  Taylor,  53-56;  21,  74,  79, 
207,  238,  241,  259,  271,  280. 

Whittredge,  Worthington,  227. 

Wieland,  23,  195,  200,  201,  229. 

Wiffln's  translation  of  Tasso,  193. 

Wilkins,  E.  G.  P.,  137,  138. 

Willis,  N.  P.,  31,  34,  58,  63,  65,  67, 
75,  139,  141  ;  Taylor's  first  meet 
ing  with,  37,  38  ;  writes  a  preface 
for  "  Views  Afoot,"  51 ;  satirized 


320 


INDEX. 


by  Duganne,  62 ;  at  Idlewild,  64, 

80 ;  his  last  book,  136. 
Willis,  R.  S.,  37,  40-42. 
Wilson,  Professor,  39. 
Wiltshire,  11,  14. 
"Wind  and  Sea,  "263. 
Winter,  William,  122,  137,  141,  278. 
Wolfram  von  Eschenbach,  200. 
Wood,  Frank,  137. 


Wordsworth,  William,  9, 18,  73, 231, 

234. 
Wortley,  Lady  Stuart,  86. 

"  Ximena,"  31-34  ;  216. 

Young,  William,  editor  of  the  "  Al 
bion,"  137. 


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